The  Eighth  Yearbook 


OF  THE 


NATIONAL  SOCIETY  FOR  THE  SCIENTIFIC 
STUDY  OF  EDUCATION 


PART  II 

EDUCATION  WITH  REFERENCE  TO  SEX 

AGENCIES  AND  METHODS 
BY 

Charles  Richmond  Henderson,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  Sociology,  University  of  Chicago,  President  of  Chicago  Society  of  Social  Hygiene 
Associate  Member  of  American  Academy  of  Medicine 

WITH  A  PAPER  ON 

SEX  INSTRUCTION  IN  HIGH  SCHOOLS 

BY 
HELEN   C.  PUTNAM,  A.B.,  A.M. 

President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine  and  chairman  of  its 
standing  committee  on  teaching  of  hygiene 


THIS  YEARBOOK  WILL  BE  DISCUSSED  AT  THE  CHICAGO  MEETINGS  OF 
THE  NATIONAL  SOCIETY.  FEBRUARY  22  AND  24,  1909 


PUBLIC  SCHOOL  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
BLOOMINGTON,  ILLINOIS 


COPTKIQHT   1909  BT 

Manfred    J.  Holmes 

BECBETART   OF  THE   SOCIETT 


Published  February  1909 

Second  ImpreBsion  October  1911 

Third  Printing  March  1937 


OFFICERS  AND  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE 


Charles  McKenny, 

State  Normal  School,  Milwaukee,  Wis, 

President 

W.  S.  Sutton, 
University  of  Texas,  Austin,  Texas 

J.  Stanley  Brown, 
Township  High  School,  Joliet,  111. 

Henry  Suzzallo, 
Columbia  University,  New  York,  N.  Y. 

Clarence  F.  Carroll, 
Superintendent  of  Schools,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Manfred  J.  Holmes, 

Illinois  State  Normal  University,  Normal,  111. 

Secretary-  Treasurer 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PART  L     PATHOLOGICAL,  ECONOMIC,  AND  SOCIAL  ASPECTS 
OF  THE  PROBLEM 

PAGE 

Preface       7 

Wisdom,  timeliness,  and  necessity  of  this  study  for  the  teachers — 
General  considerations — Testimonies  in  respect  to  this  particular  book 
— The  purpose  and  scope  of  this  study — Historical  precedents: 
the  philanthropists. 

Chapter  I 21 

Social  loss  from  sexual  vice — Neglect  of  well-meaning  citizens  largely 
due  to  ignorance  of  the  facts. 

I.  Medical  authorities  on  the  nature  of  the  social  damage  from  sexual 
vice.  Section  i,  Solitary  vice,  .excess,  and  precocious  sexual  activity; 
Section  2,  Venereal  diseases  and  prostitution;  gonorrhea,  nature,  cause, 
and  effects;  syphilis,  nature,  cause,  and  effects;  no  sexual  necessity; 
prostitution  not  a  desirable  social  institution. 

II.  Economic  loss  by  sexual  vice. 

III.  Moral  degradation. 

Chapter  II 53 

Methods  of  social  control  and  movements  for  amelioration.  Relation 
of  legal  and  administrative  measures  to  education. 

I.  The  sanitary  point  of  view  and  the  policy  of  reglementation;  the 
policy  of  toleration  and  of  license,  on  the  basis  of  medical  inspection  and 
certification;   arguments  pro  and  con. 

II.  The  policy  of  repression;   the  "abolitionists." 

III.  The  policy  of  moral  regulation;  its  principles  and  methods;  various 
experiments  in  cities;  societies  and  movements;  all  legal  methods  de- 
pend for  efficiency  in  the  last  analysis  on  general  enlightenment;  hence 
the  duty  of  educators  to  be  leaders  in  this  movement  for  public  health 
and  morality. 

PART  II.     AGENCIES  AND  METHODS 
I'rkface 7 

1  s  TRODUCTION 9 

Definition  of  "education." 

The  end  of  education:  (i)  personality,  (2)  social  obligation,  (3)  religion. 

Scope  of  educational  activity:   (r)  control,  (2)  instruction,  (3)  nurture 

Co  operating  agents:  parents,  teachers,  church,  physicians,  authors,  and 

editors. 


6  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

rAG£ 

Chapter  I 13 

Care  of  infancy,  with  particular  reference  to  sex  life — Duty  of  parents — 
Who  shall  teach  ignorant  parents  ? — Personal  hygiene  and  training. 

Chapter  II 15 

Ideal  interests. 

Chapter  III 17 

Formal  instruction  in  matters  of  sex — Ignorance  part  of  cause  of  vice 
and  disease — Call  to  give  information — ^The  appeal  of  the  bishop  of 
London — Action  of  the  diocese  of  Massachusetts. 

I.  Necessity  of  instruction. 

II.  Legitimate  scientific  interest  of  every  person — child,  youth,  adult. 

III.  DiflBculties  in  the  way  of  formal  instruction  in  this  subject. 

IV.  Paths  of  approach  for  formal  instruction:  (o)  nature-studies, 
biological  sciences;    (6)  hygiene;    (c)  physical  culture;    (d)  morality. 

V.  Selection  and  adaptation  of  materials  of  instruction;  stage  of  develop- 
ment of  pupil.  Section  i.  Childhood;  Section  2,  Puberty  and  early 
adolescence — boys;  question  of  separation  of  boys  from  girls  from  the 
twelfth  year;  agricultural  schools;  suggestive  counsels  of  experts;  "the 
boy  problem,"  by  a  member  of  the  American  Society  of  Sanitary  and 
Moral  Prophylaxis;  passages  from  Lyttleton,  "Training  of  the  Young 
in  Laws  of  Sex;"  citations  from  President  G.  S.  Hall's  Adolescence; 
Section  3,  Puberty  and  early  adolescence — girls;  Section  4,  High-school 
years;  instruction  of  apprentices;  high  schools;  principles;  methods; 
night  schools  as  an  opportunity;  continuation  schools;  Section  5,  College 
years — ^young  men;  illustrations;  "the  venereal  peril;"  letter  from  a 
physician  to  his  son  in  collie. 

VI.  Training  of  teachers  for  this  task;  normal-school  preparation; 
plea  for  more  biology  and  hygiene. 

VII.  Preparation  of  young  parents  for  their  duties;  review. 

VIII.  The  religious  organizations. 

Appendix • :)9 

Summary  of  the  discussions  of  the  German  society  for  fighting  venereal 
perils  on  Socialpadagogik;  theses  and  conclusions  in  illustration — Paper 
by  Dr.  Helen  C.  Putnam  on  "Sex  Instruction  in  Schools,"  written  for 

this  volume — Bibliography. 

List  of  Active  Members  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Scien- 
tific Study  of  Education 85 


PREFACE 

In  Part  I  of  this  study  evidence  has  been  offered  to  prove 
that  education  in  matters  of  sex  is  demanded  by  justice  to  child- 
hood, to  youth,  to  womankind,  and  to  the  race.  Hitherto  too  gen- 
erally educators — parents,  pastors,  teachers,  and  publishers — have 
shifted  the  responsibility  from  one  to  another,  and  tacitly  agreed 
to  neglect  it.  With  what  results  may  be  seen  by  those  who  will 
take  the  pains  to  read  the  scientific  statements  cited  and  sum- 
marized in  Part  I,  published  separately,  and  in  the  medical  works 
there  abundantly  quoted.  It  is  indeed  a  sad  and  revolting 
story,  but  patriotic  and  philanthropic  service  frequently  requires 
the  subordination  of  aesthetic  tastes  to  the  demands  of  a  world  of 
suffering.    To  be  too  nice  may  be  brutal  cruelty. 


INTRODUCTION 

EDUCATION  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  SEXUAL  LIFE 

Definition. — The  word  "education"  is  here  used  in  a  very  wide 
sense,  yet  it  is  Hmited  to  the  conscious  and  purposeful  efforts  of 
adults  who  seek  to  guide  children  and  youth.  Unquestionably 
nature  and  social  life  give  instruction  and  shape  character,  quite 
apart  from  any  intentional  labor  of  parents  and  teachers;  but  we 
shall  refer  to  these  forces  only  so  far  as  they  may  be  directed  and 
controlled  by  persons  having  an  educational  purpose. 

The  end  of  education,  as  here  concerned,  is  found  in  the  mean- 
ing of  life  itself. 

I.  Personality. — We  may  first  think  of  education  as  the  process 
of  developing  all  the  powers  of  a  human  personality.  Only  as  we 
gain  an  adequate  and  worthy  conception  of  man  himself  do  we 
realize  the  sigfnificance  of  the  teacher's  work.  In  no  field  of  edu- 
cation is  it  more  vital  to  have  a  clear  and  well-grounded  conception 
of  the  end  of  all  educational  work  than  here.  The  very  springs 
of  action  and  power  are  m  our  convictions  as  to  the  dignity  and 
worth  of  the  human  person.  Many  of  the  most  fatal  fallacies  and 
sophistries  which  confuse  men's  judgments  in  relation  to  sex 
morality  thrive  in  the  noisome  swamps  of  unworthy  notions  of  the 
rights  of  even  the  lowest  of  human  beings,  the  weakest,  the  most 
ignorant,  the  most  vile.  One  cannot  despise  even  a  harlot  without 
lowering  his  moral  vitality. 

The  entire  movement  of  recent  years  started  from  the  medical 
profession,  because  physicians  were  alarmed  at  the  horrible  conse- 
quences of  venereal  disease,  at  the  physical  miseries  which  spring 
from  prostitution,  and  especially  the  sufferings  of  good  women. 
But  suppose  it  were  possible  to  prevent  venereal  disease  by  the 
general  use  of  precautions  already  known  to  physicians,  while 
illicit  pleasures  went  on;  would  our  goal  be  reached?  Is  the  pro- 
phylaxis of  gonorrhea  and  syphilis  the  final  end  of  this  effort?  The 
very  title  of  the  great  and  useful  German  society  goes  no  farther: 
"Deutsche  Gesellschaft  zur  Bekaempfung  der  Geschlechtskrank- 
heiten."  The  medical  origin  of  the  society  is  clear,  and  it  has  full 
justification,  since  physicians  are  the  men  whose  social  duty  it  is 

9 


lO  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

to  combat  disease.  A  few — a  very  few — physicians  have  written 
on  the  subject  in  a  manner  to  give  the  impression  that  the  chief 
social  task  is  to  make  sin  safe !  Not  until  we  study  the  effects  of 
venereal  excesses  and  abuses  on  the  personality,  on  the  soul,  can 
we  understand  and  fully  realize  the  purpose  of  this  crusade,  this 
contest  for  possession  of  the  holy  land  of  the  spirit. 

Even  from  the  medical  standpoint,  that  of  solicitude  for  public 
health,  the  moral  factors  are  of  supreme  importance.  Every  phy- 
sician worthy  of  the  honored  name  will  insist  that  the  best  and  the 
only  sure  and  final  prevention  of  these  diseases  is  not  a  chemical 
bactericide,  or  mercury,  or  iodine,  but  a  noble  purpose,  a  dean 
character. 

It  is  not  a  preacher  but  a  physician  in  a  medical  discussion  who 
voices  this  profound  truth : 

May  state  and  society  accept  this  spiritual  and  moral  condition  of 
prostitution  simply  as  something  given  and  unchangeable,  and  declare  that 
this  lost  outcast  is  good  for  nothing  but  for  satisfaction  of  male  lust?  No 
one  can  deny  that  this  were  scorn  of  the  essence  of  the  moral  doctrine  of 
Christianity,  which  we,  in  my  opinion,  must  protect  from  destruction  as 
the  pillar  which  supports  our  entire  civilization.  The  gospel  teaches  that 
we  are  all  "called,"  that  all  men  are  children  of  God,  that  is,  that  every 
man  preserves  the  power  to  rise  out  of  the  animal  into  something  higher, 
and,  in  the  measure  of  his  faculties,  to  be  the  vessel  and  bearer  of  culture, 
which  is  in  essence  morality,  and  thereby  to  acquire  freedom  from  the 
blindness  and  soul  poverty  of  daily  existence;  that  therefore  every  man 
represents  an  independent  worth,  an  end  in  himself,  and  no  man  may  be 
used  as  a  thing;  not  even  for  a  social  end.^ 

Of  syphilis  and  venereal  diseases  in  general,  the  true  prophylaxis  lies  in 
self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self-control,  combined  with  a  due  regard 
for  the  inalienable  rights  and  the  deepest  interests  of  others,  the  claims  of 
the  weak  and  the  dictates  of  honor.* 

2.  Social  obligation. — While  a  human  being  cannot  be  made  a 
mere  thing,  a  means  to  the  satisfaction  of  selfish  gratification,  nor  a 
slave  of  society,  yet  personality  is  incomplete  in  isolation;  individu- 
ality is  not  synonymous  with  selfishness.  He  is  poor,  starved,  and 
mean  as  well  as  miserable  who  does  not  joyfully  find  his  best  self 

'  Dr.  W.  Gruber,  Die  Prostitution,  etc.,  p.  32. 

*R.  J.  Pye-Smith  (at  the  seventy-sixth  annual  meeting  of  the  British  Medical 
Association,   1908),  British  Medical  Journal,  August  i,  1908,  p.  259. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  H 

in  free  service  to  others,  in  a  course  of  conduct  which  contributes 
to  the  well-being  of  his  fellows. 

Education  must  aim  to  furnish  discipline  for  a  rational  com- 
munity life;  and  the  most  important  part  of  that  life  is  the  pro- 
duction, maintenance,  and  proper  education  of  children  and  youth. 
Artificial  avoidance  of  the  responsibilities  of  having  children  in 
many  well-situated  families  is  often  due  to  the  fact  that  considera- 
tions of  selfish  comfort  and  ease  determine  the  conduct,  and  men 
and  women  ignore  their  obligations  to  the  race. 

It  is  a  pressing  problem  to  know  what  to  do  to  increase  the  birth  rate 
of  the  superior  stocks  and  keep  proportionate  at  least  the  contribution  of 
the  inferior  stocks.  One  of  the  most  promising  influences  is  the  Eugenic 
movement  started  in  England  by  Galton  and  Pearson  to  make  proper  pro- 
creation a  part  of  religion  and  ethics,  rather  than  a  matter  of  whim  only.* 

According  to  the  general  belief  of  our  nation  each  man  has 
relations  with  God  and  obligations  to  him.  Religious  education  is 
an  essential  part  of  general  education ;  for  personality  is  unde- 
veloped while  the  religious  nature  slumbers,  and  social  duties  are 
imperfectly  felt  and  valued  apart  from  consideration  of  the  Per- 
fect, the  altogether  Good,  the  heavenly  Father.  In  religion,  as  the 
supreme  and  comprehensive  experience,  the  significance  of  per- 
sonality, the  worth  of  the  individual,  the  sanctions  of  social  duty 
come  to  the  finest  flower  and  sweetest  fruit. 

We  do  not  reject  the  help  of  any  right-minded  man  or  woman 
who  cannot  travel  with  us  so  far;  we  gratefully  accept  all  the  help 
a  merely  ethical  or  aesthetic  culture  can  give  us ;  but  those  who  have 
had  one  vision  of  God  can  never  think,  or  act,  or  teach  again  as  if 
that  vision  had  never  been  at  least  momentarily  in  their  experience. 

Scope  of  educational  activity. — In  this  discussion  of  educational 
methods  to  correct  evils  and  guide  conduct  in  a  rational  path  we 
mean  to  include  three  aspects  of  spiritual  action:  control,  instruc- 
tion, and  nurture.  Other  words  may  be  used  for  the  same  things, 
and  no  classification  can  be  made  satisfactory  to  all ;  but  the  methods 
we  are  to  consider  may  fairly  be  brought  under  these  titles  as  con- 
venient signs. 

I.  We  shall  see  that  control  is  especially  necessary  in  infancy 

•Report  of  the  Committee  on  Eugenics,  American  Breeders'  Association, 
Vol.  IV,  1908  (President  D.  S.  Jordan,  of  Leland  Stanford  University,  chairman). 


12  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

and  early  childhood,  and  also  in  reformatory  education  where 
vicious  habits  must  be  broken  and  new  habits  formed  after  years 
of  perverted  conduct.  Under  this  head  belong  the  care  of  infants 
by  parents  and  nurses  before  any  formal  instruction  or  conscious 
self -direction  can  be  employed. 

2.  Instruction  is  here  used  to  designate  the  process  of  communi- 
cation of  knowledge;  and,  in  particular,  in  this  discussion,  knowl- 
edge of  the  conditions  and  laws  of  wholesome  living  in  relation  to 
sex.     It  is  the  intellectual  or  rational  aspect  of  education. 

3.  Nurture  is  here  meant  to  indicate  all  that  part  of  education 
which  is  due  to  the  personal  influence  of  teachers,  companions,  and 
associates,  to  the  force  of  choice  in  acts  of  will  and  formation  of 
habits,  and  the  use  of  ideals  of  character  from  history,  literature, 
and  all  the  arts. 

Each  of  these  methods  of  shaping  thought,  feeling,  and  will 
must  be  employed  wisely,  persistently,  and  systematically  in  order 
to  arm  and  equip  the  youth  for  self-direction,  self-control,  and 
worthy  character. 

Co-operating  agents. — In  the  educational  process,  whether 
general  or  special,  we  have  need  of  a  systematic,  sympathetic, 
unified  co-operation  of  all  the  social  agents  of  control,  instruction, 
and  nurture.  Every  one  of  these  agencies  has  a  certain  peculiar 
force  and  function  of  its  own.  We  mention  here:  (a)  parents; 
(&)  teachers,  from  kindergarten  to  university;  {c)  church  and 
Sunday  school;  {d)  physicians;  {e)  authors  and  editors.  There 
are  other  powerful  social  agencies  whose  part  in  the  educational 
process  is  great,  but  whose  conscious  effort  is  less  directly  educa- 
tional, as  actors,  painters,  business  and  political  leaders.  In  certain 
particular  fields  and  for  particular  parts  of  our  task  we  have  a  right 
to  claim  the  helpful  co-operation  of  such  agencies  as :  parental 
associations  in  connection  with  schools,  teachers'  associations,  medi- 
cal societies,  societies  of  social  hygiene  or  moral  prophylaxis,  health 
boards  and  commissioners,  state  and  national  health  leagues,  juve- 
nile courts,  reform  societies  for  promoting  personal  purity,  night 
missions,  refuges  for  girls,  dispensaries  and  hospitals,  library  cen- 
sors, police  censors  of  places  of  amusement,  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  and  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, girls'  clubs,  women's  clubs,  churches,  and  adult  Bible  classes. 


CHAPTER  I 

cAre  of  infancy  with  particular  reference  to  sex  life 

There  are  able  writers  who  refuse  to  discuss  the  care  and  con- 
trol of  infancy  in  connection  with  education,  since  the  element  of 
formal  instruction  is  wanting  and  the  subject  is  relatively  passive. 
We  need  not  here  quarrel  with  this  view,  and  we  do  not  insist  that 
this  early  regulation  of  life  should  be  called  education.  Thus  we 
avoid  a  fruitless  controversy.  We  are  sure  that  all  well-informed 
teachers  will  recognize  the  immense  importance  of  those  habits 
which  are  started  in  infancy,  even  from  the  hour  of  birth  or  before. 
Citations  from  medical  authorities  will  make  the  nature  and  extent 
of  this  factor  very  clear. 

On  the  care  of  infants  Dr.  Griffith^  recommends  the  avoidance 
of  local  irritation,  as  phimosis,  worms  in  the  bowel,  inflammation, 
and  constant  supervision  to  guard  against  masturbation  which  some- 
times begins  very  early  with  both  male  and  female  infants. 

Masturbation  is  the  most  injurious  of  all  the  bad  habits,  and  should  be 
broken  up  just  as  early  as  possible.  Children  should  especially  be  watched 
at  the  time  of  going  to  sleep  and  on  first  waking.  Punishments  and  mechani- 
cal restraint  are  of  little  avail  except  with  infants.  With  older  children 
they  usually  make  matters  worse.  Rewards  are  much  more  eflficacious.  It 
is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  watch  the  child  closely,  to  keep  his  confi- 
dence, and  by  all  possible  means  to  teach  self-control.  Some  local  cause 
of  irritation  is  often  present,  which  can  be  removed.  Medical  advice  should 
at  once  be  sought.' 

The  necessity  for  right  care  of  infants  and  young  children  in 
the  home  being  admitted,  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  serious 
educational  problems:  How  can  parents  be  taught  this  duty  and 
the  best  way  to  perform  it?  Is  there  not  a  social  need  for  classes 
of  young  women  before  and  after  marriage,  where  they  can  be 

'J.  P.  C.  Griffith,  M.D.,  The  Care  of  the  Baby,  p.  358. 

*L.  Emmett  Holt,  M.D.,  The  Care  and  Feeding  of  Children,  p.  188.  The 
two  books  here  cited  contain  a  valuable  fund  of  information  on  all  matters  of 
the  hygiene  and  care  of  infants  and  young  children.  Cf.  Mme.  Augusta  Mott- 
Weill,.  Le  foyer  domestique,  and  La  femnte,  la  mh'e  et  V enfant. 

13 


14  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

taught  the  principles  and  methods  of  care  of  infants?    Whose  duty 
is  it  to  organize  such  classes  and  who  should  conduct  them? 

Personal  hygiene  and  training  in  relation  to  sexual  inhibition, 
control,  and  health. — After  the  care  of  infancy  the  child  and  youth 
must  be  taught  and  trained  to  take  care  of  the  body  in  all  respects, 
for  sexual  hygiene  is  only  a  part  of  wholesome  living  in  general. 
At  a  later  point  more  specific  suggestions  will  be  made. 


CHAPTER  II 

IDEAL  INTERESTS 

Ideal  interests  are  necessary  to  conquer  and  rule  lusts. 

Only  some  other  passion  will  accomplish  the  desired  control.  With 
the  Greeks,  it  was  aesthetic  passion,  love  of  the  grace  and  beauty,  the 
rhythm  and  harmony,  of  a  self-controlled  life.  With  the  Romans,  it  was 
the  passion  for  dignity,  power,  honor  of  personality,  evidenced  in  rule  of 
appetite.  But  the  passion  for  purity,  the  sense  of  something  degrading  and 
foul  in  surrender  to  the  base,  an  interest  in  something  spotless,  free  from 
adulteration,  are,  in  some  form  or  other,  the  chief  resource  in  overcoming 
the  tendency  of  excitement  to  usurp  the  governance  of  the  self.^ 

The  gifted  Dr.  F.  H.  Montgomery,  in  a  conversation  with  the 
author  shortly  before  the  death  of  that  honored  physician,  urged 
the  preparation  of  a  circular  for  the  Society  of  Social  Hygiene 
which  should  make  its  appeal  more  directly  to  the  ethical,  aesthetic, 
and  religious  interests  of  boys  and  men.  His  worthy  life  and  his 
professional  position  gave  weight  to  this  counsel.  Some  parts  of 
this  volume  are  written  in  response  to  his  earnest  charge. 

In  the  Star  of  Hope,  a  paper  published  by  convicts  in  a  New 
York  prison,  one  of  the  articles  begins  with  this  citation:  ''Trust 
in  God  and  think  of  your  mother,  and  evil  will  be  powerless  to 
tempt  you."  This  advice  was  imparted  by  a  noble  sage  to  a  class 
of  Oxford  graduates.  Once,  also,  a  moral  philosopher  was  asked : 
"What  memory,  if  any,  would  check  a  man's  pursuit  of  sin,  if 
religion  failed?"  And  the  answer  promptly  came,  "Mother." 
From  persons  as  widely  separated  as  the  sage  and  the  convict  comes 
the  same  testimony  to  the  power  of  an  ideal,  especially  when  em- 
bodied in  a  fine  personality. 

It  is  in  this  sphere  of  influence  that  teachers  may  best  work 
for  purity  and  health ;  and,  on  the  whole,  even  without  systematic 
moral  instruction,  this  self-denying,  laborious,  and  useful  pro- 
fession has  labored  for  worthy  ideals  and  not  in  vain.  Many  a  lad 
can  testify  that  the  refining  influence  of  a  woman  teacher  has  helped 

*  Dtwey  and  Tufts,  Ethics,  p.  410. 


l6  THE  EIGHTH   YEARBOOK 

to  keep  him  far  from  the  base  influence  of  unfit  associations.  The 
poetry  and  noble  prose,  the  music  married  to  immortal  verse,  made 
familiar  and  attractive  even  in  humble  elementary  schools,  and  the 
unselfish,  patriotic  sentiments  kindled  at  these  altars,  have  made 
a  career  of  impurity  morally  impossible  for  multitudes  of  men. 
Therefore,  if  some  teacher  feels  herself  unfitted,  from  ignorance  of 
biology  and  hygiene,  or  from  unconquerable  timidity,  to  help 
tempted  children  and  youth  by  specific  instruction,  let  her  never 
for  a  moment  be  discouraged  or  conscience-hurt.  She  may  do 
something,  indirectly  and  unconsciously,  by  her  beautiful  life,  and 
by  her  enthusiasm  for  noble  literature  and  biography,  which  the 
most  scientific  physician  might  be  utterly  unable  to  accomplish. 

The  brevity  of  these  hints  must  not  be  interpreted  as  an  indi- 
cation that  the  subject  is  of  minor  importance. 


CHAPTER  III 

FORMAL   INSTRUCTION    IN   MATTERS   OF    SEX:    NORMAL   SATISFAC- 
TION OF  THE  SCIENTIFIC  INTEREST 

Having  already  considered  what  needs  to  be  done  in  relation  to 
personal  hygiene  and  general  training,  we  now  approach  the  deli- 
cate problem  raised  by  a  theoretical  interest,  never  entirely  free 
from  a  prurient  element  caused  by  specific  appetite  in  youths  and 
adults.^  Ignorance  is  not  the  only  cause  of  excess,  abuse,  and  vice; 
for  natural  appetite,  especially  when  perverted,  is  a  force  even  in 
spite  of  knowledge,  and  many  a  man  gratifies  his  impulses  although 
he  knows  well  all  the  evil  consequences.  Yet  ignorance  is  one 
important  factor,  and  knowledge,  if  rightly  imparted,  is  a  help  to 
the  nobler  life. 

I  am  now  convinced  that  the  uplifting  of  the  morality  of  our  people 
lies,  above  all  and  everything  else,  in  educating  the  children,  rationally  and 
morally.  I  believe  that  more  evil  has  been  done  by  the  squeamishness  of 
parents  who  are  afraid  to  instruct  their  children  in  the  vital  facts  of  life, 
than  by  all  the  other  agencies  of  vice  put  together.  I  am  determined  to 
overcome  this  obstacle  to  our  national  morality.  I  have  not  the  slightest 
hesitation  in  saying  that  the  right  way  has  been  found  at  last.  Thousands 
of  men  have  asked  me  why  they  were  not  taught  the  danger  of  vice  in  their 
youth,  and  I  have  had  no  reply  to  make  to  them.  I  intend  now,  with 
God's  help,  to  remove  this  reproach  from  our  land.* 

The  interest  awakened  in  England  is  significant  and  encourag- 
ing for  us.  The  story  is  told  in  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal  in  the 
issue  just  cited. 

When  the  popular  Bishop  of  London  was  in  this  country,  last  year,  he 
became  intensely  interested,  it  is  said,  in  the  awakening  that  had  been 
created  here  as  to  the  subject  of  the  false  modesty  of  parents  with  their 
children  on  the  mystery  of  sex,  and  subsequent  events  seem  to  prove  that 
the  matter  made  a  deep  impression  on  the  famous  prelate's  mind. 

After  the  Bishop  got  home  he  grouped  around  him  a  company  of  the 
most  distinguished  men  and  women  of  England  :  the  venerable  Archbishop 

^  On  the  task  of  a  good  "sexual  pedagogics,"  see  A.  Blaschko,  Sexualpada- 
gogik,  3  Kong.  Deut.  Gesell.     B.  G.  p.  4,   1907. 

*The  Bishop  of  London,  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  May,   1908. 

17 


1 8  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

of  York;  the  Bishops  of  Ripon,  Southwark,  Durham,  and  Hereford;  the 
Dean  of  Canterbury;  Canon  Scott  Holland,  of  Saint  Paul's  Cathedral;  the 
Honorable  E.  Lyttleton,  head  master  of  Eton,  the  great  English  school; 
such  foremost  Nonconformist  clergymen  of  England  as  the  Reverends 
Thomas  Spurgeon,  F.  B.  Meyer,  John  Clifford,  R.  J.  Campbell:  such  lay- 
men, famed  for  philanthropy  and  wealth,  as  George  Cadbury,  W.  T.  Stead, 
Grattan  Guinness,  and  before  these  men  of  influence  he  laid  his  conviction 
that  the  root  of  the  "social  evil"  lay  in  this  so-called  "parental  modesty," 
and  that  in  the  quickening  of  the  parental  conscience  lay  the  remedy  for  the 
lifting  up  of  England's  moral  tone  which  has  for  so  long  been  the  despair 
of  England's  foremost  men.  The  Bishop  offered  to  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  great  moral  crusade,  the  like  of  which  has  never  before  been  seen 
in  England,  that  would  seek  mainly  to  awaken  the  conscience  of  the  parent- 
hood of  England,  and  point  out  to  every  father  and  mother  that  the  future 
moral  welfare  of  the  United  Kingdom  rested  in  doing  away  with  the 
present  false  modesty,  and  in  the  frank  and  honest  instruction  of  their 
children. 

Every  man  in  that  notable  meeting  in  London  saw  the  force  of  the 
Bishop's  idea;  thousands  of  dollars  were  immedately  subscribed;  the  per- 
sonal co-operation  of  everyone  present  was  gladly  offered ;  men  at  the 
head  of  great  commercial  affairs  promised  their  time,  money,  and  services, 
and  today  a  great  crusade  is  under  way  in  England. 

More  than  one  hundred  meetings  in  London  alone  have  been  arranged 
for,  in  addition  to  several  hundreds  of  meetings  in  every  town  and  village 
in  the  kingdom ;  pamphlets  are  being  prepared  and  will  be  distributed  by  the 
million ;  the  head  master  of  every  great  college  and  school  will  take  a  per- 
sonal part;  a  special  periodical  called  "Prevention"  will  be  issued  and  dis- 
tributed to  every  parent  in  England.  And  at  the  head  and  in  the  midst  of 
this  wonderfully  well-conceived  and  far-reaching  movement  stands  the 
Bishop  of  London  uttering  the  words  printed  in  the  center  of  this  page  as 
the  slogan  for  the  campaign  upon  which  he  has  entered  for  the  good  of 
England,  and  also  these  further  words :  "There  shall  be  plain  talking," 
says  the  Bishop  of  London ;  "the  time  has  gone  by  for  whispers  and  para- 
phrases. Boys  and  girls  must  be  told  what  these  great  vital  facts  of  life 
mean,  and  they  must  be  given  the  proper  knowledge  of  their  bodies  and  the 
proper  care  of  them.  No  abstractions :  the  only  way  now  is  to  be  frank, 
man  to  man."  And  to  this  important  work  are  now  to  be  devoted  the  great 
energies  and  widespread  influence  of  this  distinguished  English  prelate; 
probably,  nay,  unquestionably,  the  most  popular  man  in  the  Church  of 
England  today. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  I9 

The  action  of  the  Diocese  of  Massachusetts  is  worthy  of  men- 
tion as  an  indication  of  the  interest  of  thoughtful  leaders  of  the 
churches  whose  attention  has  been  called  to  the  facts. 

Report  of  the  Committee  on  Public  Morals 

To  the  Convention  of  the  Diocese  of  Massachusetts: 

Your  Committee  were  appointed  to  make  inquiry  into  the  prevalence  of 
immorality  and  its  results;  to  recommend  what,  if  any,  measures  are  ad- 
visable to  awaken  a  sense  of  responsibility  among  parents,  teachers,  phy- 
sicians, and  clergymen  for  the  instruction  of  the  young  in  personal  purity; 
and  to  recommend  any  means  which  may  help  to  diminish  corrupting  agencies 
or  to  build  up  a  healthy  antagonism  to  whatever  undermines  public  morals. 

The  appointment  of  this  Committee  was  largely  due  to  the  statements 
made  in  publications  of  the  American  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Pro- 
phylaxis and  in  recent  discussions  of  medical  associations.  As  these 
declared  a  condition  which  implied  a  wide  spread  of  immorality,  your 
Committee  felt  that  it  was  their  first  duty  to  learn  the  facts. 

They  therefore  addressed  a  circular  to  a  number  of  the  leading  medical 
authorities  in  this  part  of  the  country,  asking  their  belief  as  to  these  facts, 
and  also  requesting  recommendations  as  to  abating  immorality.  They  have 
received  replies  from  thirty-seven  leading  physicians,  some  of  whom  are 
recognized  authorities  upon  these  subjects.  As  these  authorities  are  well 
nigh  unanimous  in  condemning  silence  and  the  resulting  ignorance  to  which 
in  large  measure  these  evils  are  due,  your  Committee  feel  it  to  be  their 
duty  to  speak  plainly. 

It  is  agreed  that  venereal  diseases  are  very  widespread.  Of  these  dis- 
eases, syphilis  has  always  been  recognized  as  highly  infectious  and  dangerous 
involving  both  the  guilty  and  innocent  in  its  consequences.  Gonorrhea,  how- 
ever, has  been  so  generally  regarded  as  easily  cured  and  attended  by  no 
serious  results,  that  most  of  the  physicians  whom  we  have  consulted  urge 
that  the  recent  discovery  of  its  malign  effects  ought  to  be  widely  made 
known.  They  say  that  it  is  the  most  widespread  of  all  diseases  among  the 
male  adult  population. 

That  it  has  serious  consequences  upon  innocent  wives. 

That  about  one-third  of  all  venereal  infections  in  women  in  the  records 
of  private  practice  are  communicated  by  husbands. 

That  gonorrheal  infection  is  responsible  for  nearly  one-half  of  sterile 
marriages. 

That  it  is  as  powerful  a  factor  of  depopulation  as  syphilis. 

That  one-fifth  of  all  cases  of  blindness  is  due  to  gonococcic  infection. 

That  the   number   of   separations   and   divorces   on   account   of   marital 


20  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

infection  from  venereal  disease  is  much  larger  than  is  commonly  supposed; 
and 

That  these  crimes  against  women  are  largely  due  to  ignorance. 

The  only  apology  for  the  open  statement  of  facts  like  these  is  that  in 
no  other  way  can  the  public  be  aroused  to  combat  the  evil.  The  policy 
of  silence  has  been  an  utter  failure. 

We  therefore  call  upon  parents  to  feel  their  sacred  responsibility  for 
judicious  instruction  of  children  as  to  sex  and  the  relation  of  personal 
purity  to  health  and  happiness.  With  boys  especially,  it  is  not,  as  is  too 
often  supposed,  an  alternative  of  knowledge  or  ignorance,  but  of  proper 
instruction  from  those  they  love  and  respect,  or  of  partial,  distorted,  and 
vicious  knowledge. 

It  is  the  business  of  fathers  and  mothers  to  know  these  things  and  to 
be  perfectly  frank  with  their  children.  If  for  any  reason  they  feel  them- 
selves unable  to  do  this,  let  them  take  counsel  with  the  family  physician 
upon  the  subject.  Mothers  especially  should  instruct  their  daughters,  for 
young  women  are  strangely  ignorant  in  these  matters.  They  should  tell 
their  daughters  the  fearful  risk  they  undergo  if  they  marry  men  who  have 
led  immoral  lives.  Parents  should  know  the  companions  of  their  children, 
especially  the  young  men  with  whom  their  daughters  are  acquainted. 

A  responsibility  also  rests  upon  teachers  for  their  moral  example  and 
influence.  There  should  be  education  of  boys  and  girls  as  to  sex  by  some- 
one, outside  the  home  if  it  cannot  be  had  there.  Careful  instruction  should 
be  given  by  physicians,  competent  to  teach  biology  and  physiology,  in  high 
and  preparatory  schools,  and  to  the  freshmen  classes  in  colleges  and  uni- 
versities. 

A  greater  responsibility  rests  upon  physicians.  One  who  is  an  authority 
upon  this  subject  says:  "The  ignorance  in  regard  to  these  diseases  is  very 
great,  and  general  ignorance  is  to  some  extent  based  on  inaccurate  and 
incomplete  knowledge  in  the  medical  profession.  Within  the  last  few 
years,  and  since  the  advent  of  bacteriology,  these  diseases  are  found  to  be 
more  serious  and  far-reaching  in  their  effects  than  was  formerly  believed." 

Physicians  should  demand  proper  hospital  treatment  for  the  infected, 
both  for  their  relief  and  for  the  safety  of  the  innocent.  Additional  separate 
hospital  provision  ought  to  be  made  for  this  purpose,  as  at  present  such 
cases  are  generally  refused.  Opportunities  for  the  hospital  study  of  such 
cases,  which  are  now  very  meagre,  could  thus  be  had. 

We  expect  of  physicians  explicit  and  positive  contradiction  of  the 
fallacy  current  among  m'en,  and  sometimes  sanctioned  by  pretended  medical 
authority,  that  sexual  continence  is  ever  harmful  to  health.  They  should 
also  tell  patients  in  private  practice  how  dangerous  these  maladies  are  and 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  21 

how  long,  after  persons  fancy  themselves  cured,  they  may  still  be  a  menace 
to  others. 

Physicians  should  educate  patients  in  hospitals  and  dispensaries  by 
means  of  printed  or  other  definite  instructions. 

A  serious  responsibility  rests  upon  the  church.  Clergymen  should  teach 
positively  the  glory  of  purity.  They  should  insist  upon  a  single  standard 
for  men  and  women,  and  urge  the  reformation  of  the  social  code  in  this 
respect.  The  instinct  of  chivalry  and  heroism  in  men  should  be  appealed 
to,  to  protect  and  defend  womanhood.  There  should  be  dear  and  positive 
instruction  in  these  matters  to  boys  in  confirmation  classes. 

Especially  should  clergymen  hold  up  the  Christian  ideal  of  the  body 
as  a  sacred  thing — because  it  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  St.  Paul 
asks:  (I  Cor.  6:15)  "Know  ye  not  that  your  bodies  are  the  members  of 
Christ?  Shall  I  then  take  the  members  of  Christ  and  make  them  the 
members  of  an  harlot?"  It  should  always  be  recognized  that  fornication  is 
sacrilege  in  God's  eyes. 

In  order  to  awaken  this  deeper  sense  of  responsibility  among  parents, 
teachers,  physicians,  and  clergymen,  there  should  be  carefully  prepared 
literature,  which  should  not  be  too  technical  nor  diffuse.  Such  literature 
should  be  widely  disseminated  either  by  Societies  of  medical  men  for  Sani- 
tary and  Moral  Prophylaxis,  or  by  such  organizations  as  the  New  England 
Watch  and  Ward  Society. 

As  means  for  removing  corrupting  agencies,  the  following  measures 
have  been  recommended  by  physicians : 

Every  wise  effort  against  intemperance  is  an  aid  to  purity.  The  role 
of  alcohol  in  instigating  immoral  relations  and  spreading  venereal  diseases 
is  very  little  appreciated.  "A  large  proportion  of  men  and  a  still  larger 
proportion  of  women  owe  their  initial  debauch  to  the  influence  of  alcohol." 

The  ambitious  standards  of  social  life  and  the  increased  cost  of  living 
are  largely  responsible  for  the  postponement  of  marriage;  and  late  mar- 
riages are  in  part  answerable  for  immorality.  The  average  age  of  the  first 
marriage  of  men  has  within  a  century  changed  from  twenty-two  years  to 
twenty-seven  years,  and  it  is  during  these  five  years  that  a  vast  amount  of 
incontinence  occurs.  Public  sentiment  should  honor  young  people  who  are 
willing  to  endure  comparative  poverty  and  privation  in  order  to  establish 
a  home. 

Another  reform  which  should  be  undertaken  is  the  suppression  of 
medical  advertisements.  The  scoundrels  who  thus  attract  the  victims  of 
these  diseases  either  excite  undue  fears,  or  by  pretended  cures  produce 
undue   confidence.      Persons    ill   with    venereal    diseases    should    put    them- 


22  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

selves  under  the  care  of  reputable  physicians.    Legislation  should  be  sought 
to  forbid  the  demoralizing  advertisements  of  quacks. 

Public  morals  are  also  helped  by  every  effort  to  improve  industrial  con- 
ditions and  so  to  lift  the  pressure  from  many  poor  young  women.  Some 
shops,  department  stores  and  factories,  through  poor  pay  and  the  heartless- 
ness  of  employers,  expose  the  girls  in  their  employ  to  strong  temptations. 

One  of  the  most  corrupting  agencies  of  the  present  day  is  the  sensational 
newspaper,  whose  exciting  tales  of  vice  and  reports  of  crime  have  a 
demoralizing  influence  upon  all  who  read  them.  Christian  people  have  a 
duty  here,  and  should  not  buy,  and  still  more,  should  refuse  to  advertise 
in  such  papers. 

The  church  cannot  afford  to  be  remiss  in  this  every-day  fight  against  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil.  Your  Committee  respectfully  urge  that  this 
convention  should  beg  Christians  everywhere  to  join  in  a  more  open,  explicit 
and  earnest  battle  against  the  organized  forces  of  evil. 

Frederick   B.   Allen, 
Alexander  Mann, 
Charles  N.  Field, 
George  L.  Paine, 
Jeffery  R.  Brackett, 
M.  Grant  Daniell, 
Robert  Amory. 

I.    NECESSITY  FOR  GIVING  INFORMATION 

The  necessity  for  giving  some  kind  of  instruction  is  now  more 
generally  acknowledged  than  it  was  a  few  years  ago.  It  is  seen 
that  the  child  and  the  youth,  from  curiosity  and  wonder,  are  sure  to 
inquire  and  learn  the  facts  of  sex.  It  is  also  only  too  painfully 
manifest  that  almost  uniformly  the  information  gained  is  partly 
false,  mixed  with  base  suggestion,  expressed  in  coarse  and  salacious 
terms,  and  connected  with  unworthy  and  debasing  ideas  of  sex. 
It  is  not  a  question  of  whether  children  and  youth  will  learn, 
but  only  of  the  manner  of  their  learning. 

One  important  consideration  in  determining  the  ages  for  different  details 
of  instruction  is  the  limitation  of  the  opportunity  for  giving  them.  Nine- 
teen-twentieths  of  children,  and  they  of  the  poorer  families,  never  go 
beyond  grammar  grades.  Of  730,000  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  only 
390,000  continue,  nearly  one-half  dropping  out  at  twelve  or  thirteen  years 
of  age.  Of  245,000  in  the  ninth  grade  (thirteen  to  fourteen  years  of  age), 
only  74,000,  the  remnant  of  the  5,000,000  entering  eight  years  before,   are 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  23 

graduated  (sixteen  to  seventeen  years  of  age).  If  saving  knowledge  of  the 
Creator's  laws  is  to  reach  his  people  it  must  be  adapted  to  these  conditions 
as  far  as  possible.^ 

II.   SCIENTIFIC   INTEREST 

The  theoretical  interest  in  the  phenomena  of  sex  which  asks  for 
rational  satisfaction  in  true  science  arises  in  connection  with:  (a) 
the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  human  body;  (&)  the  origin  of 
living  beings — birth  and  generation;  (c)  the  explanation,  after 
puberty,  of  sexual  sensations  and  experiences — erotic  dreams,  noc- 
turnal emissions,  menstrual  periods,  sexual  desires;  (d)  the  truth 
about  sexual  commerce,  illicit  and  legitimate ;  its  purpose  and  use ; 
its  dangers,  effects;  temptations  and  ways  of  escape;  modesty,  etc. 

Now  it  is  manifest  that  theoretical  interest  is  not  concerned 
with  all  of  these  problems  at  once.  The  little  child  asks  questions 
of  its  own ;  youth  raises  entirely  new  problems ;  while  adult  experi- 
ence with  marriage  and  parenthood  demands  still  further  knowl- 
edge. 

III.    DIFFICULTIES  IN  THE  WAYS  OF  IMPARTING  CORRECT  INFORMATION 

1.  The  excitement  of  erotic  appetite  is  one  of  the  chief  dangers 
encountered.  However  strongly  we  may  be  convinced  that  instruc- 
tion is  needed  we  cannot  safely  conceal  from  ourselves  the  perils 
of  even  well-intended  efforts.  After  puberty  the  images  and  ideas 
connected  with  sex  tend  to  awaken  specific  sensations  by  acting  on 
certain  nerve  centers,  to  increase  the  circulation  of  blood  in  the 
organs  of  reproduction,  and  to  quicken  secretion  in  the  glands  con- 
nected with  these  organs;  and  all  this  is  followed  by  demand  for 
relief  in  satisfaction  of  the  sexual  appetite,  especially  with  boys. 
An  eminent  teacher  said  wisely:  Never  put  into  the  mind  any- 
thing which  you  do  not  want  to  remain  there. 

2.  Unless  knowledge  is  very  carefully  presented  the  teaching 
may  stimulate  prurient  curiosity,  which  again  may  lead  to  perilous 
experiments  of  boys  and  girls,  with  danger  of  life-long  injury  and 
disgrace. 

It  is  said  that  when  little  children  are  told  in  school  any  facts 
about  sex  they  go  out  to  tell  them,  often  in  perverted   form,  to 

•  Instruction  in  the  Physiology  and  Hygiene  of  Sex  (by  a  member  of  the 
Society  of  Social  and  Moral  Prophylaxis),  p.  19. 


24  THE  EIGHTH   YEARBOOK 

Other  children.  Perhaps  occasionally  some  harm  arises  from  this 
fact.  But  would  not  the  same  children  quite  naturally  talk  over 
these  matters  together  under  any  circumstances,  and  is  it  not  better 
their  conversation  should  be  guided  by  adult  science  than  by  igno- 
rance, fable,  lies,  and  vulgar  speech  of  unfit  persons?  Something 
can  be  done  to  dissuade  children  from  talking  unnecessarily  on  the 
subject,  just  as  they  can  be  taught  and  trained  to  modesty  and 
good  taste  in  regard  to  other  matters. 

3.  The  difficulty  in  the  case  of  parents  is  very  great,  because 
the  information  must  suggest  a  personal  element  which  fathers  and 
mothers  hesitate  to  disclose  to  their  children.  The  art  of  teaching 
is  here  put  to  its  severest  tests  by  the  necessity  to  make  this  very 
personal  factor  a  means  of  giving  sacredness  and  dignity  to  facts 
which  are  too  often  associated  with  merely  animal  impulses  and 
acts. 

4.  Another  difficulty  of  very  serious  nature  is  that,  in  common 
speech,  we  have  a  very  imperfect  vocabulary  to  make  known  the 
facts  about  the  organs,  parts,  and  functions  of  reproduction.  The 
unwritten  vocabulary  of  childhood  and  coarse  associations  is  itself 
an  incitement  to  lust,  a  debasing  and  soiling  agency.  In  nature- 
study  the  child  may  unconsciously  be  accustomed  to  a  precise,  clean, 
and  digfnified  vocabulary  which  may  be  used  for  our  purpose. 

5.  One  difficulty  of  teaching  in  school  is  the  irrational  oppo- 
sition of  parents  and  others.  Part  of  this  opposition  is  well- 
grounded:  the  teachers  are  seldom  prepared,  seldom  have  the  fun- 
damental biological  knowledge  to  do  it  perfectly. 

If  we  are  to  attain  any  practical  result,  we  must  carefully  heed  actual 
conditions,  set  aside  merely  future  requirements,  and  limit  ourselves  to  that 
which  the  authorities  and  all  parents  of  insight  after  fair  trial  can  approve.* 

IV.  PATHS  OF  APPROACH  IN  FORMAL  INSTRUCTION 

I.  Through  nature-study,  biology,  botany,  zoology.  From  a 
very  early  period  of  childhood  the  person  may,  at  a  time  when 
erotic  appetites  are  unfelt,  gradually  become  familiar  with  the  life 
cycle  of  plants,  growth,  flower,  fertilization,  formation  of  seed,  re- 
production of  the  species,  and  so  on  over  and  over  through  genera- 
tions.   The  window  garden  is  large  enough  to  recite  the  story  of  life 

*  Professor  Schafenacker,  Sexualpddagogik,  D.G.B.G.,  p.  94. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  25 

in  fair  and  charming  forms,  processes,  and  colors,  in  winter  or  in 
summer,  even  in  the  poorest  tenement.  But  here  the  mother  often 
needs  the  help  of  a  teacher  because  she  may  know  nothing  of  the 
revelations  of  modern  biology. 

All  the  essential  facts  and  principles  may  be  made  familiar  to 
young  children  where  pet  birds,  poultry,  dogs,  and  cats  are  kept 
in  the  household.  In  fact,  children  usually  do  discover,  in  a  frag- 
mentary and  often  undesirable  way,  much  more  than  their  parents 
give  them  credit  for ;  and  they  will  talk  freely  with  each  other  when 
they  will  not  talk  to  adults,  because  they  soon  discover  that  in  the 
world  and  society  of  grown-ups  the  whole  matter  is  tabu.  Reti- 
cence is  not  due,  in  the  case  of  young  children,  to  any  sense  of 
moral  wrong,  but  simply  to  an  artificially  induced  fear  of  offending 
elders  for  some  mysterious  and  unknown  reason.  With  ignorant 
and  rude  servants  they  are  often  more  at  ease,  unfortunately. 

It  is  impossible  to  treat  thoroughly  the  life  history  of  plants 
and  animals  and  ignore  the  reproductive  system.  If  any  school 
authorities  determine  to  keep  the  discussion  of  sex  out  of  their 
schools  they  must  simply  refuse  to  introduce  modern  biology  and 
to  resist  the  movement  in  favor  of  scientific  instruction  which  has 
done  so  much  for  modern  education.  Any  prudish  attempt  to  ignore 
the  reproductive  organs  in  class  will  excite  a  morbid  interest  in 
them  and  defeat  the  moral  purpose  of  the  teacher. 

Assuming  for  the  moment  that  botany  and  zoology,  whether  as 
nature-study  or  in  systematic  form,  are  to  be  taught  by  modern 
methods  and  by  competent  teachers,  let  us  consider  what  is  involved. 
The  entire  plant  or  animal  lies  on  the  table  and  is  carefully 
examined  with  the  aid  of  lenses,  and  microscope.''  Does  anyone 
familiar  with  the  laboratory  method  for  a  moment  imagine  that  the 
children  and  youth  will  observe  the  forms  and  functions  of  organs 
of  alimentation,  digestion,  absorption,  circulation,  excretion,  sensa- 
ticm,  motion,  and  co-ordination  and  not  have  the  slightest  curiosity 
about  the  form  and  function  of  the  organs  which  secure  the  perpe- 
tuation of  the  species?  If  the  teacher  attempts  to  conceal  these 
parts  and  to  intimate  that  the  study  of  them  is  improper,  he  cor- 

*  It  is  assumed  here  that  the  textbook  method,  without  dissections,  is  aban- 
doned by  all  competent  teachers. 


26  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

rupts  the  moral  sense,  kindles  prurient  interest,  and  loses  the  con- 
fidence of  his  students. 

Much  may  be  said  in  favor  of  having  young  people  taught 
biological  subjects  in  separate  classes,  with  teachers  of  the  same 
sex  as  the  members  of  the  class ;  but  no  sound  argument  can  be 
advanced  for  a  study  of  these  subjects  merely  by  means  of  expur- 
gated textbooks  without  observations  and  dissections  of  the  organ- 
ized living  creatures  themselves.  At  least  I  shall  not  occupy  any 
space  in  this  volume  to  plead  for  truly  scientific  methods  in  nature- 
study. 

a.  Nature-study  is  a  good  introduction  to  sexual  pedagogy,  but 
it  is  not  adequate  and  complete.  This  is  because  man  is  not  only 
an  animal,  a  nature-object,  but  vastly  more ;  he  is  a  person,  a  moral 
being,  self -directed  and  also  under  social  law  and  spiritual  obli- 
gations. If  instruction  stopped  with  explaining  that  reproduction 
is  "natural,"  just  as  it  is  with  animals,  the  youth  might  infer,  is  too 
likely  to  infer,  that  as  soon  as  appetite  and  opportunity  meet,  the 
sexual  act  is  legitimate.  This  would  of  course  be  ruinous.  The 
youth  needs  to  know  the  historical  origin  of  the  social  inhibitions — 
shame,  modesty,  marriage,  etc. — and  their  reasons  in  physiology, 
and  economics,  and  the  necessity  of  building  up  character  by  self- 
control.  Animals  have  only  appetite  to  move,  direct,  and  control 
them;  human  beings  have  conscience,  law,  reason,  science,  customs, 
religion  to  guide  them.  For  animals  appetite  is  enough;  for  man 
appetite  is  only  one  factor  among  many  legitimate  factors. 

These  considerations  lead  one  to  think  that  the  pedagogical 
task  is  far  more  complex  than  it  is  sometimes  represented,  especi- 
ally by  some  biologists  and  physicians.  It  is  true,  and  important 
to  show  youth,  that  appetite  should  be  held  in  bounds  by  physio- 
logical considerations,  such  as  the  need  of  maturity  and  full  growth 
of  organs,  the  accumulation  of  tissue  before  reproduction  begins, 
the  imperfect  fruit  of  precocious  reproduction,  etc.  It  can  be 
shown  that  in  case  of  animals  the  stock-breeder  finds  it  well  to 
keep  the  sexes  apart,  to  delay  reproduction,  to  prevent  it  entirely  in 
case  of  "scrubs,"  as  by  castration,  isolation,  etc.  But  human  con- 
trol must  come  from  the  widest  possible  survey  of  all  the  consider- 
ations which  come  from  the  entire  spiritual,  moral,  aesthetic,  reli- 
gious, and  social  worlds. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  27 

b.  Another  path  of  approach  to  sexual  hygiene  is  in  connection 
with  the  general  subject  of  human  anatomy,  physiology,  and  per- 
sonal hygiene. 

c.  A  third  avenue  is  that  opened  by  the  director  of  physical 
culture  in  family,  kindergarten,  school,  high  school,  Young  Men's 
and  Young  Women's  Christian  Associations,®  clubs  of  boys,  girls, 
and  adults.  In  all  these  circles,  physical  vigor,  grace,  power  are 
more  and  more  esteemed.  Girls  as  well  as  boys  have  set  before 
them  an  ideal  of  bodily  force  and  health  which  can  readily  be  uti- 
lized. The  ambitions  of  the  athlete  can  easily  be  shown  to  be  incon- 
sistent with  sexual  excess  and  venereal  diseases;  a  choice  must 
be  made  in  view  of  the  total  situation.  Frequently  the  most  influ- 
ential lessons  in  morality  are  given  by  a  blunt  word  from  the 
physical  director,  if  he  is  of  the  right  character. 

d.  Instruction  in  matters  of  sex  should  be  made  a  natural  part  of 
the  whole  system  of  instruction  in  science  and  morality,  and  not  a 
subject  apart.  Thus  in  connection  with  lessons  upon  filial  duty, 
self-respect,  personal  dignity,  patriotism,  obligations  to  posterity 
and  to  the  race,  conscience,  purity,  and  religion  the  facts  of  sex 
life  have  their  proper  place. 

V.    SELECTION     OF     MATERIALS     AND     ADAPTATION     OF     METHODS     OF 
INSTRUCTION   TO   STAGE   OF  DEVELOPMENT 

It  is  evident  that  the  selection  of  the  particular  facts  and  princi- 
ples to  be  taught  must  be  governed  by  the  stage  of  development 
of  the  pupils.  We  may  therefore  roughly  classify  and  analyze  the 
facts  to  be  taught  according  to  the  approximate  age  of  the  person : 
(i)  the  young  child,  (2)  child  at  puberty,  (3)  adolescents,  (4) 
adults  about  the  time  of  marriage,  (5)  parents. 

The  materials  of  instruction  should  be  presented  in  view  of 
the  discovered  interests  of  the  person.  It  is  hurtful  to  anticipate 
the  scientific  curiosity  and  the  practical  needs  of  the  pupil.  So 
far  as  possible  the  right  moment  should  be  chosen  and  what  is 
necessary  to  say  should  be  said  once  for  all,  and  so  clearly  that  it 
will  be  known  forever.    When  any  statement  of  this  order  is  given 

•  See  paper  of  George  J.  Fisher,  M.D.,  in  Transactions  of  the  American 
Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis,  VoL  II,  1908,  pp.   130  ff. 


28  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

it  should  be  correct,  scientific,  precise,  and  notice  should  be  served 
that  it  will  not  frequently  be  repeated,  if  at  all. 

Section  i.  Childhood. — The  interests  of  young  children  in 
this  field  relates  primarily  to  the  origin  of  life,  and  it  is  awakened 
in  the  form  of  curiosity  by  the  birth  of  a  baby  in  the  family  or  in  the 
family  of  a  neighbor,  or  by  the  birth  of  kittens,  puppies,  colts,  chick- 
ens, canary  birds.  The  child  in  normal  surroundings  early  becomes 
familiar  with  some  of  the  main  facts  of  maintenance  and  care,  such 
as  nourishment  of  the  infant  at  the  mother's  breast,  the  presence 
of  the  father  as  earner  of  income  and  source  of  supplies  for  the 
house,  and  the  control,  affection,  and  sympathy  of  both.  Quite  early 
the  young  child  asks:  Where  was  baby  before  we  saw  it?  How 
did  it  come  to  us?  Who  brought  it?  Why  did  it  come  to  this 
house?  and  so  on  in  multifarious  forms. 

The  most  common  methods  of  quieting  the  persistent  demands 
of  this  purely  scientific  interest  is  a  myth  or  a  theology:  "The 
stork  brought  it;"  "the  doctor  gave  it  to  us;"  "God  sent  it  by  an 
angel;"  "it  came  from  heaven."  Sometimes  the  answers  graze 
the  lie  direct;  and  the  whole  process  may  easily  become  a  lesson 
in  falsehood,  evasion,  and  insincerity.  There  are  many  reasons  for 
believing  that  the  plain,  simple,  direct  answer  of  truth  is,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  satisfactory.  Many  parents  already  have  from 
the  first  told  their  little  ones  simply  the  fact  that  the  baby  grew 
under  mother's  heart,  as  a  chicken  grows  in  an  tgg,  and  that  she 
then  gave  it  life  apart,  at  cost  of  great  pain.  Of  course  the  chil- 
dren thus  instructed  will  speak  of  what  they  know  to  others  and 
will  shock  adults  with  their  direct  and  matter-of-fact  way  of  talk- 
ing; but  no  injurious  results  will  come.  Indeed  the  parents  win  at 
once  the  confidence  of  the  child  and  the  mother  is  loved  all  the 
more  when  her  sacrifice  is  even  dimly  understood.  This  is  the 
testimony  of  numerous  competent  parents  who  have,  with  some 
misgivings  at  first,  given  this  method  a  fair  trial. 

Adults  are  very  apt  to  have  groundless  and  unreasonable 
anxieties  about  this  method  because  they  are  ignorant  of  the 
psychology  of  childhood  and  falsely  imagine  as  existing  in  the 
minds  of  young  children  feelings  which  never  come  into  conscious- 
ness until  puberty  arrives.    The  words  which  excite  specific  appe- 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  2g 

tite  in  an  adult  have  no  such  effect  when  used  by  a  person  under 
ten  years  of  age. 

That  which  stimulates  the  adult  sexually  leaves  the  sexually  immature 
child  completely  indifferent  Therefore  one  can  talk  with  them  about  these 
matters  very  well  in  a  certain  way,  and  give  them  information  without  stir- 
ring in  them  specific  sexual  feelings.' 

As  the  child  grows  older,  especially  if,  as  in  the  country,  it 
plays  with  pets  or  goes  about  in  fields  with  domestic  animals,  it 
is  likely  to  inquire  as  to  the  part  of  the  father  in  the  origin  of  the 
child.  Here  again  the  rational  interest  is  best  satisfied  by  the  truth. 
To  tell  a  lie  is  corrupting ;  to  evade  the  question  is  to  send  the  eager 
child  to  some  unfit  teacher  and  to  destroy  confidence  between 
parent  and  child.  Surely  there  is  nothing  shameful  in  the  relation, 
and  it  should  never  be  treated  as  a  mystery  of  doubtful  significance. 
The  child  owes  its  very  being  to  the  father  as  well  as  to  the  mother 
and  should  be  told  this  by  father  and  mother  when  asked.  Per- 
haps this  general  statement  will  meet  the  demands  of  the  search- 
ing intellect  for  several  years ;  after  that  the  whole  truth  must  be 
told  in  season.  The  most  difficult  and  critical  question  usually 
comes  later,  but  may  at  any  time  be  urged  under  the  pressure  of 
some  unexpected  discovery,  as  the  copulation  of  domestic  animals, 
although  this  for  a  long  time  may  have  no  meaning  beyond  a  play 
for  the  child's  mind. 

It  seems  impossible  to  give  any  general  rule  on  this  subject 
except  the  pedagogic  principle  already  stated:  the  interest  of  the 
child  in  asking  a  question  indicates  the  stage  of  mental  develop- 
ment at  which  the  information  should  be  given,  but  no  more  than 
is  necessary  to  quiet  the  mental  unrest. 

It  is  manifestly  desirable  that  the  young  inquirer  should  be 
trained  to  seek  this  kind  of  information  only  from  the  parents  or 
person  distinctly  authorized  by  them,  but  best  of  all  father  and 
mother  alone.  Nor  should  this  be  difficult.  In  such  matters  as 
bathing,  dressing,  and  meeting  the  demands  of  nature  in  urination 
and  movement  of  the  bowels  it  is  not  difficult  to  train  the  child  to 
go  only  to  the  mother  for  help.  The  sense  of  modesty  is  easily 
developed  under  favorable  conditions  where  the  residence  has  enough 
rooms  to   furnish  privacy.     In  tenement  houses  the  communistic 

'  Forel,  Die  sexuelle  Frage,  p.  512. 


3©  THE  EIGHTH   YEARBOOK 

publicity  of  personal  contacts  turns  the  whole  task  of  cultivating 
protective  modesty  into  a  tragedy.  In  any  case  the  child  should,  as 
far  as  possible,  on  certain  subjects  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  abso- 
lute and  intimate  confidence  with  parents.  Wherever  such  inti- 
macy and  confidence  are  secured  and  maintained  the  child  will  be 
willing  to  wait  for  a  while  for  information  which  it  is  not  yet  ripe 
to  receive.  And  this  is  often  highly  desirable,  because  the  mind 
should  be  prepared  gradually  for  receiving  information  in  respect 
to  the  origin  of  human  life  and  the  actions  of  parents  which 
tend  to  a  birth. 

This  preparation  is  commonly  made  by  ordinary  superficial 
observation  of  the  anatomy,  growth,  and  reproduction  of  plants  and 
of  domestic  animals.  Even  in  a  city  nature  reveals  its  cycles  of 
birth,  development,  reproduction,  death,  new  generations.  With 
the  extension  of  small  parks,  with  their  flowers,  trees,  and  zoo- 
logical cages  or  gardens,  this  kind  of  knowledge  grows  more  com- 
mon in  cities;  on  farms  the  daily  life  of  children  makes  them 
familiar  with  the  whole  story.  And  it  is  precisely  in  the  country, 
even  without  scientific  instruction,  that  children  grow  up  with 
that  healthy  view  of  reproductive  processes  which  protects  them 
in  some  degree  from  moral  peril,  and  therefore  the  sexual  appe- 
tite is  less  excited  and  abnormal  than  in  cities. 

But  if  common  observation  is  valuable,  exact  and  scientific 
observation  would  be  better.  Hence  the  value  of  nature-study  in 
this  connection ;  for  this  introduction  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
phenomena  of  living  organisms  gives  the  child  a  more  precise 
and  accurate  idea  of  the  alimentary,  circulatory,  nervous,  and 
reproductive  systems  of  living  bodies,  and  answers  indirectly  ques- 
tions about  human  reproduction  which  it  would  be  awkward  to 
answer  directly.' 

Section  2.  Puberty  mid  early  adolescence — hoys. — It  is  highly 
desirable  that  parents  should  so  direct,  guide,  and  teach  their  boys 
that  the  school  teacher  may  be  spared  the  necessity  of  giving 
instruction.  Thus  intelligent  parents  could  aid  the  boy  very  much 
to  pass   through  the   inevitable   struggles   of   adolescence    (i)    by 

'  Cf.  on  this  subject  a  valuable  little  book.  Dr.  med.  Julian  Marcuse,  Gruf%4- 
siige  einer  sexuellenpddagogik  in  der  h'duslichen  Erziehung,  Munich,  1908  (45 
pages).  As  to  how  Helen  Keller,  blind-mute,  was  taught  the  origin  of  life  in 
maa,  see  her  autobiography  (passage  cited  by  Dr.  Marcuse,  p.  283,  284). 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  31 

requiring  the  observance  of  a  few  sensible  measures  of  personal 
hygiene — frequent  bathing,  swimming,  loose  clothing,  side  pockets 
in  trousers,  hard  bed  with  not  too  much  cover,  well-ventilated  bed- 
room with  windows  open  all  the  year,  total  abstinence  from  alco- 
hol, tobacco,  coffee,  and  tea,  moderation  in  use  of  meat;  (2)  by 
helping  the  lad  to  avoid  mental  pictures  of  salacious  nature,  vulgar 
and  obscene  companions,  pornographic  circulars,  vile  dramatic 
entertainments,  debasing  fiction;  (3)  by  awakening  and  stinuil 
ing  enjoyment  of  outdoor  life,  in  both  sport  and  useful  work,  and 
so  placing  an  emphasis  on  the  normal  boy's  desire  for  physical 
superiority,  industrial  efficiency,  social  consideration.  The  boy 
should  go  to  bed  at  a  regular  hour  and  be  required  to  get  out  of 
bed  the  moment  he  is  called  and  to  come  down  at  once.  The 
morning  hour  in  bed  is  often  a  moment  of  severe  temptation;  (4) 
by  giving  him  stories  of  chivalry,  in  which  the  youth  makes  pro- 
tection of  girls  and  women  a  part  of  religion  and  honor  and  is 
induced  to  regard  the  soiling  of  feminine  character  as  beneath 
contempt;  (5)  by  so  frankly,  honestly,  and  completely  meeting  the 
questions  of  the  lad  about  his  body  that  no  vague  region  of  mystery 
shall  remain  as  a  haunt  of  spectral  fear  or  prurient  curiosity,  so 
that  no  quack  advertisement  can  ever  gain  his  credence,  and  so 
that  he  will  know  a  little  in  advance  the  nature  of  the  sexual 
changes  through  which  he  is  to  pass. 

When  the  right  time  arrives  the  boy  needs  to  be  told  that  he 
should  not  excite  erections  artificially  by  any  sort  of  friction,  as 
this  will  tend  in  some  degree  to  form  a  habit  difficult  to  break  and 
which  may  seriously  injure  him  if  carried  too  far;  that  the  emis- 
sion of  semen  in  sleep,  accompanied  more  or  less  by  dreams,  must 
not  trouble  him  or  cause  a  second  thought  of  anxiet}',  being  merely 
a  natural  indication  that  he  is  slowly  growing  into  manhood, 
though  for  many  years  will  not  be  fully  mature.  Under  all  cir- 
cumstances the  boy  should  be  taught  to  refrain  from  talking  with 
others  about  matters  of  sex,  but  to  talk  with  perfect  freedom  with 
his  parents  when  he  needs  to  know  anything,  and  that  if  he  suffers 
pain  or  weakness  none  but  the  trusted  family  physician  should  be 
consulted,  and  that  without  shame.® 

•See  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Adolescence;  and  his  paper  in  Transactions  of  the 
American  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis,  Vol.  II,  1908,  pp.  195  flF., 
as  well  as  other  papers  in  the  same  volume. 


32  THE  EIGHTH   YEARBOOK 

But  how  many  years  must  elapse  before  we  can  hope  for  such 
instruction  and  training  by  parents  to  become  general?  This  con- 
sideration leads  us  to  inquire  what,  if  anything,  the  school  can  do 
to  help  parents  and  boys  in  this  difficult  situation. 

Separate  Instruction  of  Boys  and  Girls  After  About  the 
Twelfth  Year 

At  present  we  are  in  an  experimental  stage  in  regard  to  methods 
of  instruction  in  matters  of  sex;  and  it  is  probably  too  early  to 
anticipate  the  results  of  experiments  now  under  trial  in  different 
countries.  Some  teachers  of  youth  believe  that  boys  and  girls  at 
the  beginning  of  puberty,  or  before,  should  be  taught  in  separate 
classes,  at  least  in  such  subjects  as  biology  and  human  physiology 
and  hygiene,  and  by  teachers  of  their  own  sex.  They  believe  that 
instruction  given  under  these  conditions  can  be  made  more  clear, 
plain,  explicit,  accurate,  scientific,  and  that  the  discussions  of  pupils 
in  the  higher  grades  will  be  more  free. 

Other  teachers,  even  in  Germany,  favor  frank  instruction  in 
mixed  classes  in  biology  and  hygiene  and  claim  that  it  is  done  by 
many  teachers  without  embarrassment  or  injury.  They  reason  that 
if  the  young  people  are  separated  for  such  instruction  it  is  sur- 
rounded with  an  air  of  mystery  and  evil,  as  if  there  were  some- 
thing debasing  per  se  in  the  facts  of  sex,  and  that  this  very  mystery 
debases  the  tone  of  thought  and  feeling  on  the  subject. 

Perhaps,  since  we  cannot  come  to  a  general  agreement  at  once 
on  this  point,  we  must  continue  to  work  as  local  circumstances  per- 
mit, with  a  careful  regard  not  to  offend  local  public  sentiment.  In 
some  regions  it  would  be  impossible  to  introduce  these  subjects 
in  mixed  classes  without  stirring  revolt  and  opposition  and  retard- 
ing real  progress  for  decades  of  years ;  in  some  cities  a  good  begin- 
ning has  been  made  without  perceptible  difficulty.  No  responsible 
superintendent  will  move  forward  faster  than  public  opinion  will 
warrant.     Foolhardiness  is  not  courage. 

Some  instruction  every  boy  has  a  right  to  receive  from  his 
school  teachers,  in  part  from  suitable  persons  of  his  own  sex,  even 
if  it  is  necessary  to  call  in  a  school  physician.  This  necessary 
minimum  of  instruction  is  best  given,  however,  as  a  natural  part 
of  instruction  in  biology,  hygiene,  morals,  history,  and  literature. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  33 

In  some  way  every  boy  should  learn  in  his  school  the  necessity  of 
cleanliness  of  the  entire  body,  the  avoidance  of  needless  friction 
and  excitement,  of  open-air  sports  and  exercise,  of  treating  girls 
and  women  with  modesty  and  respect,  of  chivalry  in  guarding 
innocence,  of  the  effects  of  vice  and  baseness  on  offspring  in  the 
future. 

I  say  this  much  at  least  should  be  taught  boys  in  school  before 
and  at  puberty,  because  for  most  of  them  it  is  their  only  chance 
to  learn,  and  because  at  this  time  the  school  itself  offers  tempta- 
tions before  judgment  and  conscience  have  been  formed.  If  pub- 
lic opinion  among  parents  will  not  permit  teachers  to  give  this 
minimum  of  instruction  orally,  then  the  school  authorities  should 
call  parents  and  physicians  together,  discuss  with  them  the  neces- 
sity for  such  information,  and  force  the  responsibility  upon  them. 

Agricultural  Schools 

Forel  recommends  for  boys  the  rural  school  home  {Landerzic- 
hungsheim),  established  by  Reddie  in  England,  by  Leitz  in  Ger- 
many, and  by  Frey  and  Zuberbuehler  in  Switzerland.  These 
schools  are  based  on  ideas  of  Pestalozzi,  Froebel,  Rousseau,  Owen. 
etc.^°  Such  schools  must  be  for  exceptional  cases,  as  private  board- 
ing-schools ;  but  public  schools,  especially  in  villages  and  the 
country,  can  introduce  many  of  their  features,  and  some  have 
begun  to  do  so.  In  order  to  bring  out  other  phases  of  methods 
with  boys  we  cite  here  several  important  passages  from  competent 
authors.  We  may  add  here  the  counsels  of  a  thoughtful  medical 
man: 

The  work  is  especially  difficult,  as  it  deals  with  the  individual  in  that 
critical  period  which  attends  the  awakening  of  sex.  During  adolescence  the 
boy  becomes  conscious  of  the  stirring  of  certain  sensations  and  impulses 
which  center  in  the  sex  organs  and  which  may  become  intrusive  in  their 
claim  upon  his  attention.  Unless  he  has  been  enlightened  as  to  the  mean- 
ing and  true  use  of  the  sex  function  and  the  necessity  of  its  restraint,  he  is 
apt  to  regard  these  impulses  as  a  sufficient  guide  for  its  exercise.  It  is  at 
this  period,  also,  that  curiosity  in  regard  to  sex  reaches  its  highest  curve, 
and  it  is  important  that  it  should  not  be  fed  from  poisonous  sources.  The 
social   tradition    which    prohibits    sound    scientific   teaching    in    sex,    entirely 

}"  Forel,  The  Method  of  Ascertaining  Results  of  Education,  Without  or  in 
Addition  to  Examinations. 


34  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

ignores  the  exstence  of  those  secret  undercurrents  of  corrupt  knowledge 
which  everywhere  circulate.  From  these  sources  the  vast  majority  of  ado- 
lescents become  indoctrinated  with  certain  erroneous  ideas  of  the  sex 
function  and  sex  relationship  which  are  most  pernicious  in  their  influence 
upon  character  and  conduct:  (i)  That  the  purpose  of  the  sex  function  is 
sensual  pleasure;  (2)  that  one  has  a  natural  right  to  indulge  his  sensual 
impulse  as  he  pleases;  (3)  that  such  indulgence  is  a  physical  necessity,  essen- 
tial to  the  preservation  of  virility;  (4)  that  chastity  is  not  possible  under  the 
conditions  in  which  the  majority  of  young  men  live;  (5)  that  this  need  is 
recognized  in  the  setting  apart  of  a  certain  class  of  women  as  instruments 
of  sensual  pleasure — all  dangerous  doctrines  and  absolutely  untrue. 

The  state,  through  its  educational  system,  has  usurped  the  functions  of 
parents  by  concerning  itself  with  the  correction  of  defects  of  sight,  hearing, 
breathing,  as  well  as  the  organs  concerned  in  the  mastication  of  food.  If 
these  physical  defects  interfere  with  the  intellectual  capacity  of  the  pupil, 
disorders  of  the  reproductive  system  are,  in  many  cases  at  least,  no  less 
active  causes  of  the  backwardness  of  children.  The  important  relation  of 
the  sex  function  to  mental  and  physical  development  cannot  be  too  strongly 
emphasized,  and  the  effects  upon  the  mind  are  often  more  marked  than  upon 
the  body.  Boys  who  suffer  from  sexual  disorders  are  apt  to  be  restless, 
dull,  or  listless,  with  an  inability  to  concentrate  their  minds  upon  their 
studies.  Memory  is  impaired,  and  their  capacity  for  mental  work  is  dimin- 
ished. There  is  no  other  physical  cause  which  has  such  a  pronounced  effect 
upon  the  morale  of  the  individual  as  sexual  disorders. 

The  dangers  of  the  habit  at  an  early  age  before  the  secretion  of  semen, 
and  the  consequent  loss  of  seminal  fluid  occurs,  are  manifest  in  local  irri- 
tation of  the  bladder  and  urethra,  and  often  in  general  irritability  and  insta- 
bility of  the  nervous  system  from  repeated  nervous  shock.  If  the  habit  is 
continued  the  results  are  depression,  vertigo,  palpitations,  often  a  sense  of 
formication  along  the  spine  or  other  portions  of  the  cutaneous  surface, 
accompanied  with  marked  neurasthenic  symptoms.  It  is  often  the  cause  of 
pollutions  and  spermatorrhoea. 

While  epilepsy,  insanity,  idiocy,  etc.,  have  been  alleged  as  the  result  of 
this  habit,  it  is  probable  that  they  are  seldom  developed  except  in  cases 
where  there  exists  a  marked  predisposition  to  these  diseases.  Unquestion- 
ably many  of  the  more  serious  results  formerly  ascribed  to  masturbation 
are  grossly  exaggerated  by  quacks  for  selfish  and  mercenary  purposes ;  on 
the  other  hand  there  is  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  reputable  authorities  to 
gloss  over  and  minimize  the  ill  effects. 

As  regards  the  specific  diseases  incident  to  sexual  vice,  the  experience 
of  physicians  both  in  private  and  public  practice  shows  that  these  diseases 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  35 

are  not  infrequently  contracted  through  attempted  sexual  intercourse  by 
boys  in  their  early  teens,  and,  exceptionally  at  an  almost  incredibly  early 
age.  This  precocity  of  sexual  vice  is  most  often  seen  in  street  boys  and 
among  the  classes  that  visit  the  dispensaries.  Specific  diseases  are  more 
often  contracted  by  boys  from  sexual  perverts  who  use  them  in  an  un- 
natural way. 

The  teaching  of  purity  has  long  been  practiced  by  various  purity  feder- 
ations and  leagues  both  in  this  country  and  abroad.  While  too  much  credit 
cannot  be  given  the  high  motives  which  actuate  this  teaching,  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  the  method  employed  is  the  wisest  and  best.  The  incul- 
cation of  purity  as  an  abstract  principle,  without  an  understanding  of  the 
bodily  conditions  to  which  it  relates,  often  fails  of  efifect.  Unfortunately, 
in  these  exhortations  to  purity  the  impression  is  often  given  that  the  whole 
question  of  sex  is  unclean,  something  shameful  and  even  sinful;  further, 
that  punishment  for  sexual  sin  is  reserved  for  the  hereafter.  Unfortu- 
nately the  penalty  is  not  sufficiently  proximate  to  act  as  a  deterrent.  The 
force  of  this  teaching  would  be  enhanced  by  perfect  intelligence  of  the  laws 
of  sex  and  their  relation  to  physical  health  and  well-being.  Sensuality  is  a 
sin  against  the  body  which  always  carries  its  punishment  with  it,  and  can- 
not be  atoned  for.  The  individual  is  punished  by  his  sins,  and  the  penalty 
is  personal  and  often  immediate. 

The  teachings  of  science  in  regard  to  the  sex  function  are  always  in 
accordance  with  the  physical  interests  of  the  individual.  Who  shall  teach 
the  teachers  is  largely  a  pedagogic  problem.  There  is  no  doubt  an  urgent 
need  for  the  organization  of  a  course  of  special  training  for  teachers  for 
this  work.  In  my  opinion  no  better  solution  of  the  problem  could  be  found 
than  the  establishment  in  schools  of  pedagogy  of  a  special  course  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  difficult  art  of  teaching  a  delicate  subject." 

The  effect  of  the  use  of  tobacco  on  young  lads,  though  not  so 
.serious  as  that  of  alcohol  and  certain  drugs,  seems  to  be  serious. 
Some   candid   cigarette    smokers   will   admit   that   the   practice   creates    a 

liking  for  the  effects   of   alcohol Further,  writers   of   authority  say: 

"It  is  said  to  induce  premature  puberty;  by  its  depressing  and  disturbing 
effects  on  the  nerve  centers  it  increases  sexual  propensities  and  leads  to 
secret  practices,  while  permanently  imperiling  virile  powers." 

"Educational  Pamphlet  No.  4,  The  Boy  Problem,  by  a  member  of  the 
American  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis. 

"Alfred  A.  Woodhull,  A.M.,  M.D.,  LL.D.  (Prin.),  sometime  lecturer  on 
personal  hygiene  and  general  sanitation,  Princeton  University,  in  American 
Health,  September,  1908,  p.  37. 


36  THE  EIGHTH   YEARBOOK 

A  very  suggestive  book  by  an  eminent  English  teacher  brings 
out  certain  aspects  of  our  problem  in  a  helpful  way: 

One  or  two  broad  principles  may  be  laid  down.  The  first  is  that  matter 
is  not  evil.  The  time-honoured  doctrine  which  affirms  the  contrary  is,  it  is 
true,  less  confidently  stated  than  formerly,  and  physical  science  with  its 
revelation  of  the  nature  of  our  bodies — scarcely  less  than  Christian  teach- 
ing as  to  their  destiny — has  saved  us  from  any  formulated  heresy  in  these 
days.  Yet  it  remains  a  fact  that  in  the  popular  view  of  this  subject  there 
is  much  that  tends  to  depreciate  one  of  the  greatest  of  all  divine  or  natural 
laws — the  law  of  the  propagation  of  life.  To  a  lover  of  nature  no  less  than 
to  a  convinced  Christian  the  subject  ought  to  wear  an  aspect  not  only 
negatively  innocent  but  positively  beautiful.  It  is  a  recurrent  miracle  and 
yet  the  very  type  and  embodiment  of  law;  and  it  may  be  confidently 
affirmed  that  in  spite  of  the  blundering  of  many  generations  there  is 
nothing  in  a  normally  constituted  child's  mind  which  refuses  to  take  in  the 
subject  from  this  point  of  view,  provided  that  the  right  presentation  of  il  is 
the  first. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  principle  to  be  grasped,  that  there  is  nothing  in 
natural  law  which  may  not  be  spiritualized  in  its  presentation  to  a  child. 
The  second  is  that  the  first  presentation  of  this  particular  subject  is  the 
one  which  prevails  over  all  others. 

The  third  principle  concerns  the  procedure  to  be  adopted.  The  teaching 
must  not  be  isolated,  but  given  simply  as  illustrating  laws  of  nature  about 
which  something  is  already  known.  •  And  if  the  facts  are  to  be  imparted 
so  as  to  throw  light  upon  other  facts,  the  methods  of  teaching  should  be 
in  no  way  peculiar,  but  the  same  as  those  which  are  found  effectual  in  other 
subjects.  Observation  and  reflection  will  generally  tell  us  when  a  child 
begins  to  feel  a  curiosity  about  the  fact  of  birth — when  he  silently  discards 
the  fables  or  myths  with  which  his  questions  earlier  in  life  were  satisfied. 
The  time,  in  the  case  of  an  ordinarily  apprehensive  mind,  will  be  some- 
where between  eight  and  eleven  years :  and  it  is  no  objection  to  this  rule 
that  some  children  in  the  upper  classes  pass  through  their  teens  in  total 
and  contented  ignorance  of  the  whole  mystery.  This  discussion  would  never 
have  arisen  unless  such  children  were  the  exception.  We  are  considering 
the  majority.  And  in  proceeding  from  the  known  to  the  unknown  we 
shall  take  into  account  that  the  fact  of  maternity  is  much  earlier  guessed  at 
than  that  of  paternity.  Therefore  the  teaching  on  the  former  ought  to  be 
made  the  starting-point  for  the  teaching  which  deals  with  the  latter,  but  of 
this  I  will  speak  again  later. 

Reference  is  made  to  the  animal  world  just  so  far  as  the  child's  knowl- 
edge extends,  so  as  to  prevent  the  new  facts  from  being  viewed  in  isolation. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  37 

but  the  main  emphasis  is  laid  on  this  feeling  for  his  mother  and  the  instinct 
which  exists  in  nearly  all  children  of  reverence  due  to  the  maternal  rela- 
tion; in  the  hope  that  use  may  be  made  of  the  natural  reserve  which  for- 
bids a  light  and  careless  handling  of  this  topic  among  schoolboys.  Of  the 
two  methods  the  former  is  more  scientific,  the  latter  is  more  personal, 
appealing  to  the  deeper  emotions  of  the  child's  heart.     Which  is  the  best  ? 

In  answering  this  some  account  must  be  taken  of  the  prevailing  shyness 
or  reserve  which  exists  between  parents  and  children,  especially  on  the 
father's  side,  in  relation  to  such  subjects  as  this.  It  might  be  supposed  that 
tlie  more  scientific  method  of  instruction  would  from  its  quasi-impersonal 
character,  be  less  difficult  for  a  father  to  employ  than  the  other,  which 
invariably  leads  him  onto  sacred  ground.  But  in  practice  this  would  not 
be  found  to  be  the  case.  The  crux  of  the  question  is  the  personal  applica- 
tion of  the  facts  presented ;  and  if  that  application  is  shirked  the  value  of 
the  lessons  will  be  in  many  cases  lost;  the  boy  will  learn  some  interesting 
botanical  laws,  but  he  will  not  connect  them  with  human  beings  until  he  is 
a  good  deal  older,  and  by  that  time  the  mischief  will  have  been  done.  It  is 
true  a  boy  of  scientific  propensities  and  precocious  reasoning  powers  will 
connect  the  two  subjects  pretty  readily  at  an  early  age — say,  fourteen — but 
something  more  is  required  than  simply  correlation  with  other  facts. 
Knowledge  by  itself  may  suggest  counsels  of  prudence,  but  it  has  long  ago 
been  discovered  by  schoolmasters  that  prudential  warnings  by  themselves 
are  quite  impotent  against  an  imperious  appetite  of  any  kind.  And  if  a 
father,  desirous  of  beginning  with  the  easier  part  of  the  subject,  adopts  the 
botanical  illustrations  in  order  to  lead  up  to  a  personal  appeal,  he  will  find 
that  his  difficulty,  when  he  comes  to  the  point,  has  been  very  slightly 
diminished  by  the  scientific  preamble.  Perhaps  it  may  be  thought  that  too 
much  account  is  here  taken  of  the  shyness  of  a  parent  with  his  own  son. 
Nevertheless  it  is  really  incontestable  that  this  national  characteristic  has 
always  been  the  grand  obstacle  to  the  giving  of  salutary  instruction  of  this 
sort  to  the  young. 

The  real  answer  to  the  question  between  the  two  methods  is  that  they 
ought  to  be  combined,  and  that  by  far  the  greater  stress  should  be  laid  on 
the  personal  appeal,  which  certainly  ought  to  precede  any  formal  scientific 
teaching  about  the  propagation  of  life.  It  may  reasonably  be  asserted  that 
the  wholesome  impressions  of  childhood,  which  consciously  and  vividly  last 
through  life,  are  those  made  by  one  or  both  of  these  influences.  And  we 
want  both. 

The  truth  of  these  statements,  however,  will  be  easier  to  gauge  if  I 
now  proceed  to  give  more  in  detail  the  nature  of  the  teaching  which  seems 
to  be  required. 


38  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

At  some  time  between  eight  and  eleven  years  of  age,  in  any  case  before 
a  child  leaves  home,  the  fact  of  maternity  should  be  explained.  Probably 
he  will  know  that  as  regards  domestic  animals  there  is  some  kind  of  law 
of  offspring  being  born  from  the  mother's  body.  In  any  case  it  is  very 
easy  to  remind  him  of  scattered  facts,  either  within  his  cognizance  or  on 
the  confines  of  it,  which  enable  him  to  understand  that  this  is  a  universal 
law.  For  a  year  or  two  in  most  cases,  not  in  all,  he  will  have  been  realiz- 
ing that  there  is  some  mystery  about  the  matter,  and  that  his  nurse  and 
parents  have  ceased  to  put  off  his  curiosity  with  tales  of  fairies,  etc.  So  he 
is  eager  and  fully  prepared  to  hear  that  there  is  an  explanation ;  and  as 
far  as  the  maternal  side  of  the  subject  is  concerned  it  should  be  simply 
stated,  with  emphasis  laid  on  the  suffering  involved  to  his  mother,  and  the 
wonderful  fact  given  as  a  reason  why  the  mother  so  dearly  loves  her  son. 
And  it  would  be  well  to  go  farther  and  indicate  the  period  of  gestation, 
and  explain  the  phrase  in  the  Litany  and  some  well-known  passages  in  the 
Bible.  It  is  a  perfectly  simple  matter,  and  beyond  all  doubt  a  supremely 
natural  process  of  instructing,  and,  as  far  as  I  know,  never  fails  of  its 
reward,  to  wit,  a  closer  link  of  union  between  mother  gnd  child,  and  an 
implanting  of  a  deep  reverence  in  the  child's  mind  for  the  greatest  of  all 
natural  laws  and  for  the  parental  relation. 

But  when  puberty  comes  on.  the  crohlexn  changes.  We  may  assume  that 
the  early  teaching  has  been  effectual  in  saving  the  boy  from  evil  imaginations 
as  well  as  from  sins  of  word  and  deed :  and  yet  when  the  passions  begin 
to  be  roused  by  bodily  growth  it  is  quite  certain  that  fresh  guidance  will 
be  needed.  To  begin  with,  some  years  may  have  passed  and  the  effect  of 
the  preliminary  teaching  may  partly  be  worn  away.  So  a  very  special  sup- 
plementary warning  is  required,  which,  if  possible,  should  be  given  by  the 
father,  and  should  take  the  form  of  an  appeal  to  the  boy's  consciousness  of 
germinating  manhood ;  every  effort  being  made,  as  in  the  previous  talk,  to 
inspire  him  with  the  feeling  of  the  dignity  of  human  life  and  of  the  laws 
of  life.  Not  only  is  this  a  bracing  and  a  wholesome  tone  to  adopt,  but  it  is 
so  natural  as  to  be  almost  easy,  certainly  as  compared  with  the  tone  of  mere 
warning,  which  by  itself  is  full  of  the  dangers  of  suggestion. 

It  is  of  great  importance  that  the  lad  be  not  depressed  or  frightened. 
Everything  possible  should  be  said  and  done  to  give  him  belief  in  himself 
and  in  his  Maker.  Nothing  but  harm  comes  of  convincing  a  boy  that  he  is 
a  failure,  and  we  do  not  want  a  lot  of  young  Englishmen  to  be  going  about 
apologizing  for  their  own  existence.  So  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  explain 
the  meaning  of  temptation — as  in  many  cases  God's  method  of  training  the 
character  to  be  strong — and  then  to  show  how  the  young  man  preparing 
himself  for  life  must  know  how  to  go  forth  to  meet  his  boyish  trials  like 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  39 

a  soldier  advancing  to  battle,  almost  rejoicing  that  his  enemy  is  strong 
because  he  feels  sure  that  he  can  overcome  him.  Thus  when  he  feels  the 
approach  of  his  foe  he  can  recognize  the  call  to  use  the  strength  within  him 
that  it  may  grow  by  conflict  and  victory:  because  he  perceives  that  now  is 
the  moment  when  he  is  going  to  be  further  equipped  for  the  welfare  of 
life,  and  on  it  perhaps  depends  the  question  whether  he  will  grow  into  a 
warrior  or  into  a  slave.  He  should  be  told  that  his  will  which  he  thinks 
weak  is  really  quite  strong  enough  for  any  number  of  trials,  if  only  he 
knows  their  meaning  and  is  not  frightened  or  fascinated  by  them. 

Little  need  be  said  in  the  way  of  deterrent.  If  a  father  has  once 
obtained  an  avowal  of  the  fact  there  is  little  doubt  that  in  most  cases  the 
shame  of  it  is  felt  and  a  few  grave  words  about  the  sullying  of  the  thoughts 
and  of  the  heart  are  all  that  is  necessary,  unless  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  a  certain  callousness  exists  which  must  at  all  costs  be  broken  through. 
Even  then  I  doubt  the  wisdom  of  saying  much  about  physical  ill  effects, 
as  to  which  considerable  divergence  of  opinion  exists  among  doctors.  The 
exhortations  should  be  of  such  a  kind  as  to  make  the  boy  see  the  meaning 
of  the  trial,  and  the  paramount  importance  not  so  much  of  being  victorious 
as  of  being  ever  hopeful,  persevering,  and  resolute  to  do  exactly  what  he 
is  told  by  way  of  safeguard;  and  above  all  to  put  away  the  unclean  thing 
from  his  thoughts  and  forget  any  failure  that  may  occur  as  speedily  as 
possible. 

Confirmation  is  of  course  the  time  when  schoolmasters  get  to  learn 
something  of  the  graver  side  of  boy  life,  and  the  reason  why  it  is  so 
precious  to  them  is  that  it  allows  them  to  rely  on  sound  and  bracing  thoughts 
instead  of  barren  denunciation  and  abortive  appeals  to  the  will,  which  the 
boy  knows  perfectly  well  is  too  weak  for  the  work  it  has  to  do. 

Indeed  there  is  something  awe-inspiring  in  the  innocent  readiness  of 
little  children  t^  learn  the  explanation  of  by  far  the  greatest  fact  within  the 
horizon  of  their  minds.  The  way  they  receive  it,  with  native  reverence,  truth- 
fulness of  understanding,  and  guileless  delicacy,  is  nothing  short  of  a  reve- 
lation of  the  never  ceasing  bounty  of  Nature,  who  endows  successive  gen- 
erations of  children  with  this  instinctive  ear  for  the  deep  harmonies  of  her 
laws.  People  sometimes  speak  of  the  indescribable  beauty  of  children's 
innocence,  and  insist  that  there  is  nothing  which  calls  for  more  constant 
thanksgiving  than  their  influence  on  mankind.  But  I  will  venture  to  say 
that  no  one  quite  knows  what  it  is  who  has  foregone  the  privilege  of  being 
the  first  to  set  before  them  the  true  meaning  of  life  and  birth  and  the 
mystery  of  their  own  being. 

By  way  of  a  tentative  suggestion  I  would  point  out  that  there  seems  to 
be    a    natural    division    of    labor    between    the    two    parents.      Suppose    the 


40  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

mother  takes  upon  herself  to  lay  the  foundation  of  the  knowledge  at  about 
eight  or  nine  years  of  age;  there  remains  a  necessary  caution  to  be  given 
to  boys  towards  the  time  of  puberty,  which,  properly  speaking,  ought  to  be 
somewhat  medical  in  character,  and  this  would  seem  to  be  the  part  either 
of  the  father  or  some  trustworthy  doctor.  In  a  fairly  large  number  of 
cases,  after  the  early  teaching,  a  very  shght  hint  would  be  sufficient." 

Among  educators  the  name  of  President  G.  Stanley  Hall  carries 
deserved  weight,  and  for  the  suggestions  he  makes  and  the  authority 
of  their  author,  we  print  here  certain  relevant  paragraphs  apply- 
ing to  boys  as  well  as  to  later  adolescence : 

Passing  now  to  sexual  pedagogy  and  regimen,  the  world  presents  proba- 
bly no  such  opportunity  to  religion,  the  moralist,  the  teacher,  the  wise  father, 
the  doctor  who  is  also  a  philosopher.  There  is  no  such  state  of  utter 
plasticity,  such  hunger  for  vital  knowledge,  counsel,  sound  advice.  Young 
men  in  other  respects  headstrong,  obstinate,  self-sufficient,  and  independent, 
are  here  guided  by  a  hint,  a  veiled  allusion,  a  chance  word  of  wisdom.  The 
wisest  man  I  know  in  these  matters  and  the  most  experienced,  a  physician 
and  also  a  religious  teacher,  goes  to  audiences  of  young  men  at  the  end  of 
the  academic  year,  who  have  been  unmoved  by  the  best  revivalists,  who  are 
losing  power  just  in  proportion  as  they  neglect  to  know  or  prudishly  ignore 
this  field,  and  wins  men  by  the  score  to  both  virtue  and  piety.  I  have  sat  at 
his  feet  and  tried  to  learn  the  secret  of  his  method.  It  is  simple,  direct,  con- 
cise, and  in  substance  this :  In  these  overtense  cases  the  mind  must  first  of 
all  be  relieved  of  worry,  and  it  must  be  explained  that  excessive  anxiety 
and  attention  are  the  chief  provocative  of  nocturnal  orgasms.  This  is  itself 
often  a  cure.  Then  the  assurance  that  such  experiences,  varying  greatly 
with  different  individuals  in  frequency,  are  normal,  and  that  their  entire 
absence  would  be  ominous  for  sexual  health,  often  comes  as  a  gospel  of 
joy  to  victims  of  ignorance,  as  does  the  knowledge  that  their  case  is  com- 
mon and  not  unique  and  exceptional.  Personal  examination  by  one  who 
has  seen  thousands  of  cases  and  who  can  speak  with  an  authority  that 
commands  confidence  in  most  cases,  reveals  none  of  the  grave  or  even 
mild  ailments  that  had  grown  to  such  alarming  proportions  in  the  rank 
soil  of  youthful  fancy.  Diversion  to  objective  interests  or  tasks  that  are 
active  and  absorbing,  confirmation  of  wills  that  are  not  sufficiently  estab- 
lished against  occasional  lapses  by  showing  how  fundamental  sexual  health 
and  its  irradiation  are  for  domestic  happiness,  for  a  religious  life  and 
altruism,  a  few  hygienic  precepts  concerning  sleep,  food,  pure  air,  bathing, 

"  E.  Lyttleton,  head-master  of  Eton  College,  Training  of  the  Young  in  Laws 
of  Sex,  p.  68. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  41 

exercises,  and  regularity,  and  perhaps  a  little  carefully  selected  biological 
reading,  and  in  many,  if  not  most  cases,  a  wondrous  change  is  wrought. 
Some  describe  their  experience  as  having  a  great  burden  rolled  off,  a 
strain  or  chain  removed;  they  seem  to  walk  on  air,  feel  themselves  men 
again,  their  strength  renewed,  look  back  with  self-pity  upon  their  former 
folly,  etc. 

Ethical  culture  alone  is  very  inadequate,  and  preaching  or  evangelistic 
work  that  ignores  this  evil  is  unsuccessful.  Religion  best  meets  these 
needs  because  it  deals,  if  true,  with  what  most  affects  the  life  of  the  young 
and  what  is  the  tap-root  of  so  much  that  is  best  in  them.  Youth  takes  to 
religion  at  this  age  as  its  natural  element.  True  conversion  is  as  normal 
as  the  blossoming  of  a  flower.  The  superiority  of  Christianity  is  that  its 
corner-stone  is  love,  and  that  it  meets  the  needs  of  this  most  critical  period 
of  life  as  nothing  else  does.  It  is  a  synonym  of  maturity  in  altruism,  and 
a  religion  that  neglects  this  corner-stone,  that  is  not  helpful  in  this  crisis, 
that  is  not  entered  upon  now  inevitably,  is  wanting.  He  is  a  poor  psy- 
chologist of  religion  and  a  worse  Christian  teacher  who,  whether  from 
ignorance  or  prudery,  ignores  or  denies  all  this,  or  leaves  the  young  to  get 
on  as  best  they  may.  Sex  is  a  great  psychic  power  which  should  be  utilized 
for  religion,  which  would  be  an  inconceivably  different  thing  without  it, 
and  one  of  the  chief  functions  of  the  latter  in  the  world  is  to  normalize 
the  former.  Error  blights  the  very  roots  of  piety  in  the  heart,  atrophies 
the  home-making  faculties,  and  kills  enthusiasm  and  altruism.  Their  curves 
of  ascent  and  decline  rise  and  fall  together  both  in  age  and  in  normality, 
and  very  many  church  communicants  are  not  what  they  would  be  but  for 
some  psycho-physical  handicap  of  this  nature.  But  ubi  virus,  ibi  virtus. 
God  and  nature  are  benign,  and  recuperative  agencies,  in  these  years  so 
supercharged  with  vitality,  in  cases  that  seem  desperate,  often  act  cito, 
certe  et  jucunde.  The  very  excess  of  the  physiological  fecundating  power 
in  man  which  caused  man's  fall  is  so  abounding  that  it  may  work  his  cure. 
Grave  psychic  discrasias  due  to  passional  states  generally  seem  to  be  com- 
pletely outgrown,  and  even  gonorrhea  and  its  sometimes  persistent  sequel, 
gleet,  cannot  usually  long  withstand  nature's  vis  reparatrix  if  reinforced 
by  a  hygienic  habit  of  life. 

That  this  department  of  sexual  hygiene  has  been  almost  criminally 
neglected,  none  can  doubt.  Family  physicians  are  almost  never  consulted 
by  boys,  and  the  great  majority  of  doctors  know  almost  nothing  about  the 
whole  subject  save  the  standard  modes  of  treating  a  few  specific  diseases 
with  overt  symptoms ;  while  clergymen,  who  should  be  spiritual  and  moral 
guides,  know  perhaps  still  less,  and  have  often  come  to  regard  as  superior 
ethical  purity  and  refinement  the  sloth  and  cowardice  that  dreads  to  grap- 


42  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

pie  with  a  repulsive  and  festering  moral  sore.  While  legislation  is  sadly 
needed  for  the  protection  of  youth,  instruction  is  no  less  imperative  if  the 
springs  of  heredity  are  to  be  kept  pure.  The  blame  rests  mainly  with  the 
false,  and,  I  believe,  morbid  modesty  so  common  in  this  country  in  all  that 
pertains  to  sex.  At  Williams  College,  Harvard,  Johns  Hopkins,  and  Clark, 
I  have  made  it  a  duty  in  my  departmental  teaching  to  speak  very  briefly 
but  plainly  to  young  men  under  my  instruction,  personally  if  I  deemed  it 
wise,  and  often,  though  here  only  in  general  terms,  before  student  bodies, 
and  I  believe  I  have  nowhere  done  more  good,  but  it  is  a  painful  duty. 
It    requires    tact    and    some   degree    of    hard    and    strenuous    common-sense 

rather  than  technical  knowledge 

Some  think,  at  least  for  girls,  all  that  is  needed  can  be  taught  by 
means  of  flowers  and  their  fertilization,  and  that  mature  years  will  bring 
insight  enough  to  apply  it  all  to  human  life.  Others  would  demonstrate 
on  the  cadaver  so  that  in  the  presence  of  death  knowledge  may  be  given 
without  passion.  This  I  once  saw  in  Paris,  but  cannot  commend  for 
general  use.  An  evil  of  such  dimensions  will  be  cured  by  no  newly  dis- 
covered method  or  specific,  but  only  by  courageous  application  for 
generations  of  the  many  means  already  known  for  strengthening  the 
physical  and  moral  nature.  Some  would  merely  give  simple,  direct,  and 
honest  answers  to  honest  questions,  being  careful  to  go  no  farther  than 
satisfy  so  much  curiosity  as  had  been  aroused.  Others  would  begin  at 
eight  or  ten,  before  passion  had  awakened,  and  with  no  reserve  tell  every- 
thing by  charts  about  the  origin  of  life.  Others  would  make  it  all  mystic 
and  symbolic,  and  some  would  leave  all  to  nature  or  accidental  sources  of 
information.  It  seems  clear  and  certain  that  in  our  modern  life  something 
should  be  taught,  and  that  betimes.  This  should,  I  believe,  be  chiefly 
per.sonal,  and  by  fathers  to  sons  and  by  mothers  to  daughters.  It  should 
be  concise  and  plain,  yet  with  all  needed  tact  and  delicacy  in  well-chosen 
words.  It  should  be  very  brief,  and  not  spun  out  like  the  well-meant  and 
goody  books  on  the  subject  that  should  be  boiled  down  to  about  one- 
fiftieth  their  size  and  cost.  This  probably  ought  to  be  the  most  inspiring 
of  all  topics  to  teach,  as  to  the  truly  pure  in  heart  it  is  the  most  beautiful 
of  all.  In  twilight,  before  the  open  fire,  in  the  morning,  in  some  hour  of 
farewell,  on  a  birthday,  or  any  opportune  confidential  time,  this  most 
sacred  topic  could  be  rescued  from  evil  or  be  given  abiding,  good  associa 
tions.  The  self-knowledge  imparted  that  makes  for  health  is  perhaps 
almost  the  culminating  function  and  duty  of  parenthood.  It  may  be  that 
in  the  future  this  kind  of  initiation  will  again  become  an  art,  and  experts 
will  tell  us  with  more  confidence  how  to  do  our  duty  to  the  manifold 
exigencies,   types,  and   stages  of  youth,  and  instead  of   feeling  baffled   and 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  43 

defeated,  we  shall  see  that  this  age  and  theme  is  the  supreme  opening  for 
the  highest  pedagogy  to  do  its  best  and  most  transforming  work,  as  well 
as  being  the  greatest  of  all  opportunities  for  the  teacher  of  religion." 

A  physician,  who  does  not  betray  his  identity,  elaborates  in  a 
pamphlet  an  address  he  gave  at  the  fifty-ninth  session  of  the 
American  Medical  Association^®  which  was  heartily  approved  by 
eight  well-known  practitioners  who  discussed  it.  It  was  in  the 
form  of  an  address  to  adolescent  boys.    He  says: 

If  a  boy  friend  boasts  to  you  of  his  sexual  experience  with  girls, 
drop  acquaintance  with  that  boy  at  once ;  he  is  trying  to  corrupt  your 
mind  by  lying  to  you.  If  a  boy  in  an  unguarded  moment  tries  to  entice 
you  to  masturbatic  experiments,  he  insults  you.  Strike  him  at  once  and 
beat  him  as  long  as  you  can  stand,  etc.  Forgive  him  in  your  mind,  but 
never  speak  to  him  again.  If  he  is  the  best  fighter  and  beats  you,  take  it 
as  in  a  good  cause.  If  a  man  scoundrel  suggests  indecent  things,  slug 
him  with  a  stick  or  a  stone  or  anything  else  at  hand.  Give  him  a  scar  that 
all  may  see,  and  if  you  are  arrested,  tell  the  judge  all  and  he  will  approve 
your  act,  even  if  it  is  not  lawful.  If  a  villain  shows  you  a  filthy  book  or 
picture,  snatch  it  and  give  it  to  the  first  policeman  you  meet  and  help 
him  to  find  the  wretch.  If  a  vile  woman  invites  you,  and  perhaps  tells  a 
plausible  story  of  her  downfall  you  cannot  strike  her,  but  think  of  a  glit- 
tering poisonous  snake.  She  is  a  degenerate  and  probably  diseased,  and 
even  a  touch  may  poison  you  and  your  children. 

He  explains  briefly  the  working  of  gonotoxin.  when  it  begins  and 
when  it  reaches  heart,  kidneys,  joints,  eyes,  brain,  etc.,  describes 
buboes  and  chancre,  and  explains  the  horrors  of  the  latter,  warns 
against  all  doctors  who  advertise,  and  tells  of  their  methods. 

Section  3.  Puberty  and  early  adolescence — girls. — Here  again, 
though  in  less  degree,  the  school  has  a  duty  to  perform.  Only  by 
knowledge  of  herself  and  of  her  danger  can  a  girl  protect  her 
health  and  her  virtue  from  the  perils  which  constantly  beset  the 
unwary  and  the  ignorant.  Not  much  need  be  said,  but  that  little 
is  vital  and  may  be  brought  in  naturally  in  connection  with  instruc- 
tion in  personal  hygiene  and  morality.  If  public  opinion  is  per- 
verse and  if  parents  will  not  permit  suitable  oral  instruction  by 

"  G.  Stanley  Hall,  The  Psychology  of  Adolescence,  Vol.  I,  pp.  463,  464. 

"  The  Boys'  Venereal  Peril,  Chicago,  1903,  p.  35.  See  also  Harvard  mono- 
graph. The  Venereal  Peril;  and  Fournier's  Address  to  Sons  on  Attaining  Their 
Eighteenth   Year. 


44  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

women  teachers,  then  public  opinion  must  be  changed  by  education, 
and  the  teaching  profession  has  the  first  responsibility. 

In  our  cities  girls  in  the  wage-earners'  families,  on  the  average, 
remain  in  school  somewhat  longer  than  the  boys ;  but  multitudes 
of  them  leave  school  before  the  high-school  age  and  must  be  helped, 
if  ever,  at  puberty.  That  so  many  go  astray  through  sheer  igno- 
rance is  not  so  wonderful  as  that  so  few  are  ruined.  It  is  pitiful 
to  watch  the  life  of  shop  and  factory  girls  of  fourteen  and  beyond 
who  are  thrown  in  contact  with  moral  perils  of  which  neither 
family,  church,  nor  school  has  given  them  warning. 

A  very  excellent  example  of  a  lecture  for  girls  is  that  of  Dr. 
A.  Heidenhain.^^  This  physician  invited  the  mothers  of  girls  in 
the  public  schools  of  working  people  to  bring  their  daughters  for 
scientific  instruction  in  their  nature  and  calling  just  at  the  time 
they  were  leaving  school  at  about  the  fourteenth  year  of  age.  The 
lecture  is  illustrated  by  drawings  of  the  female  organs  of  repro- 
duction, and  the  author  tells  in  simple,  honest  words,  as  if  each 
child  was  his  own  and  had  come  to  him  for  professional  counsel,  the 
meaning  of  reproduction,  the  development  of  the  tgg,  the  act  of 
birth,  the  supply  of  breast  milk,  the  duty  of  mother  to  child.  If  a 
girl  suffers  or  sins  after  this  lecture  it  is  not  from  ignorance  of  the 
most  vital  facts. 

Dr.  Helen  C.  Putnam  was  asked  to  write  counsels  for  mothers 

in  teaching  their  young  daughters.     She  replied :  "I  cannot 

It  is  an  unnatural  cramming,  an  artificiality Everything  for 

the  purpose  you  indicate  that  I  have  ever  read  in  periodicals  and 
pamphlets  offended  me.  Regular  education  is  the  only  reasonable, 
effective,  safe  method.  Advise  mothers  to  form  a  class  for  study 
under  a  competent  scientist."  This  advice  comes  from  a  gifted 
woman  physician.  But  is  there  not  something  to  be  said  for  a 
different  view?  How  long  before  there  will  be  enough  "competent 
scientists"  to  instruct  the  millions  of  mothers  by  oral  lessons  ? 
Meanwhile — what  ? 

Dr.  Alfred  Fournier  in  his  little  book.  Pour  nos  files,  p.  28, 
says: 

You  may  well  assert,  ladies,  that  the  moral  law  alone  is  able  to  accom- 
plish something  against  this  peril,  and  that  the  physicians  would  be  rein- 

"  Sexuelle  Belehrung  der  aus  der  Volksschule  entlassenen  Mddchen,  Leipzig, 
1907.  !•  A.  Barth. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  45 

forced,  well  reinforced  in  their  crusade,  if  they  had  with  them  the  edu- 
cators of  youth.  They  have  the  power  to  raise  the  moral  level  of  future 
generations.  In  fact,  the  social  question  is  confounded  here  as  always  and 
everywhere  with  the  moral  question." 

Dr.  Fournier  in  writing  his  booklet  for  our  daughters  addresses 
it  to  their  mothers  when  these  shall  consider  that  the  counsels  he 
gives  are  necessary;  he  addresses  it  particularly  to  the  mothers  of 
young  working  girls  and  says : 

These  are  counsels  that  a  mother  and  still  more  a  father  may  experi- 
ence some  embarrassment  in  giving  to  a  daughter,  and  these  are  counsels 
which  a  physician  alone  has  ability  to  formulate,  but  which  he  is  not  at 
liberty  to  address  to  a  young  girl  without  the  consent  of  her  family. 
Therefore,  mothers  of  families,  and  above  all  mothers  of  young  working 
girls,  read  them  these  pages,  and  if,  as  we  hope,  you  find  them  prepared 
for  instruction  and  guidance  against  the  many  dangers  which  menace 
them,  permit  them  to  read  this  little  work,  which  has  no  other  purpose 
than  to  safeguard  their  interests. 

The  statement  of  Judge  Julian  W.  Mack,  whose  distinguished 
services  in  one  of  the  largest  juvenile  courts  give  his  every  word 
great  weight,  is  suggestive  to  parents  and  teachers,  both  in  respect 
to  the  necessity  for  the  instruction  of  girls  and  the  best  methods  of 
giving  such  instruction.  It  was  printed  in  the  Ladies'  Home 
Journal,  May,  1908.^* 

During  a  three-years'  experience  as  judge  of  the  Juvenile  Court  in 
Cook  County  there  came  before  me  several  hundred  cases  of  girls,  ranging 
in  age  from  seven  to  eighteen  years,  every  one  of  whom  had  made  a  misstep. 
Their  pitiful  stories  have  impressed  upon  me  the  vital  importance  of  two 
fundamental  duties  that  fathers  and  mothers  owe  to  their  children : 

First,  that  parents  should  at  all  times,  from  earliest  childhood,  have  that 
priceless  possession,  the  genuine  confidence  of  their  child :  a  confidence 
which  will  cause  the  child  not  merely  to  obey,  but  also  to  trust  and  to  feel 
implicitly  that  the  parent  is  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances  the 
best  friend,  the  most  constant  companion,  and  the  wisest  and  most  willing 
adviser. 

Second,  that,  in  order  to  earn  and  to  deserve  this  confidence,  parents 
must  be  frank  in  responding  to  the  natural  inquiries  of  their  child ;  yea, 
more,  they  must  divine  the  unspoken  question  at  the  right  time,  and  answer 

"  Cf.  Dr.  H.  A.  Kelly,  Medical  Gynecology,  chap.  ii. 

'*  Cf.  P.  Zeuner,  M.D.,  "The  Prevention  of  Venereal  Disease  through  Edu- 
cation," Lancet-Clinic,  December   14,   1907,  p.  573. 


46  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

it  clearly  and  in  a  manner  that  will  invite  further  questions  as  the  child 
develops  into  young  womanhood. 

I  know  the  difficulties  involved  in  this,  even  for  the  more  intelligent 
and  educated  parents.  But  I  know  only  too  well  that  too  many  parents  live 
in  a  fools'  paradise  of  belief  that  their  silence  spells  ignorance  and  inno- 
cence on  the  part  of  the  children. 

It  cannot  be  too  emphatically  repeated  that  every  child  mingling  with 
other  children,  whether  in  private  or  in  public  schools,  is  going  to  learn 
much  even  at  the  age  of  ten,  and,  in  circles  in  which  children  are  not  care- 
fully guarded,  even  as  early  as  seven.  The  words  picked  up,  the  thoughts 
awakened,  arouse  the  inquiring  mind.  If  the  silent  inquiry  be  felt  and 
responded  to  by  the  parents  a  relation  is  established  which,  developed  by 
mutual  confidences,  throws  a  protecting  mantle  over  the  little  one  that  in 
many  cases  will  guard  her  for  life.  If  the  spoken  or  unspoken  query  be 
avoided  or  checked  the  first  barrier  is  raised,  which,  followed  by  the  con- 
ventional story,  easily  and  quickly  discovered  to  be  untrue,  destroys  the 
child's  faith  in  her  mother.  This  may  close  her  lips  for  all  time  and  turn 
her  to  those  who  are  always  within  reach  and  are  only  too  ready  to  initiate 
her  not  only  into  a  complete  knowledge  of  but  also  into  an  experiment  with 
the  mysteries  of  life. 

I  do  not  for  a  moment  assert  that  all  girls  make  missteps  because  of 
this  ignorance  of  the  facts  of  life.  Many  of  mature  age  realize  not  only 
the  moral  wrong  but  some  of  the  physical  consequences  as  well.  Even 
they,  however,  are  generally  ignorant  of  the  results  of  disease  that  too 
often  follow  the  wrong  step  and  of  its  permanent  and  terrible  consequences. 

The  literature  that  the  social  hygiene  societies  are  now  spreading  is  to 
the  average  girl,  as  it  is  to  the  average  parent,  a  sealed  book.  The  girl  who 
has  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  her  parents  from  childhood  may  be  spared 
much  of  this  knowledge,  but  to  those  girls  who  have  not  been  strengthened 
by  this  complete  mutual  trust  with  the  parent  even  these  sad  stories  must 
be  told. 

Whenever  a  number  of  school  children  are  in  court  for  these  wrongs 
one  leader  among  the  girls  has  invariably  been  found  responsible  for 
spreading  the  trouble.  The  boys  instinctively  recognize  the  difference  in 
girls  and  know  which  are  possible  victims  and  which  are  not.  From  one 
of  the  schools  located  in  an  excellent  region  of  Chicago  came  a  girl  of 
seventeen  years  of  age.  Her  parents  were  an  old  couple,  her  sister  a 
trained  nurse,  and  her  brother  an  excellent  business  man.  This  seventeen- 
year-old  girl  was  the  baby  of  the  family  and  in  their  eyes  an  innocent  child, 
the  object  of  universal  love.  The  family  never  suspected  that  instead  of 
visiting  one  of  her  girl  schoolmates  after  supper,  as  she  said  she  did,  she 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  47 

was  keeping  an  appointment  with  some  of  the  neighborhood  boys.  Her 
influence  led  at  least  three  others  girls  of  from  twelve  to  fifteen  to  follow 
in  her  footsteps.  Two  of  her  intimate  friends  were  twins  of  the  age  of 
fifteen,  and  one  took  the  keenest  pleasure  in  these  clandestine  meetings. 
The  other  twin  knew  practically  nothing  about  them,  as  not  only  the  boys, 
but  even  the  girls,  recognized  her  innate  modesty  and  refrained  from  men- 
tionmg  them  in  her  presence.  The  boys  told  me  that  they  would  be  ashamed 
and  afraid  to  make  an  indelicate  suggestion  in  her  presence,  while  they 
hesitated  at  nothing  in  the  presence  of  the  other  twin  and  her  companions. 

None  of  these  girls  had  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  physical  conse- 
quences of  their  acts.  They  all  realized,  of  course,  that  they  were  disobey- 
ing and  deceiving  their  parents  and  otherwise  doing  wrong,  but  not  one  of 
them  had  ever  been  told  anything  about  the  origin  of  human  life.  As  to 
whether  this  knowledge  would  have  protected  them  or  not  I  cannot  be 
sure,  but  I  believe,  from  my  conversations  with  them  and  with  their 
parents,  that  it  would  have  done  so.  The  incident  became  generally  known 
in  the  school  and  caused  a  complete  awakening  of  the  parents  in  that  sec- 
tion of  the  city  to  a  realization  of  their  obligations.  The  school  is  located 
at  the  border  line  between  a  section  occupied  by  fairly  well-to-do  people 
and  a  section  occupied  by  the  poorer  classes.  Every  one  of  the  boys  and 
girls  involved  in  this  trouble  came  from  the  well-to-do  class. 

In  another  case  some  half  a  dozen  boys  and  half  a  dozen  girls  between 
the  ages  of  ten  and  thirteen  were  involved.  The  leader  here,  again,  was  a 
girl  of  eleven  years.  She  was  one  of  the  seven  or  eight  children  of  a 
widow.  This  girl  had  never  received  the  slightest  instruction  in  these 
matters — in  fact,  she  was  the  victim  of  parental  neglect  to  such  an  extent 
that  it  became  necessary  to  take  her  away  from  home. 

In  a  small  suburb  of  Chicago  half  a  dozen  high-school  girls  of  fourteen 
and  fifteen  years  of  age  made  a  regular  practice  of  receiving  a  company  of 
their  male  fellow-students  at  their  respective  homes  on  Thursday  after- 
noons when  the  mothers  were  away  attending  their  club  meetings.  These 
boys  and  girls  were  all  of  the  so-called  better  classes  and  the  mothers 
were  intelligent  women.  In  their  club  afifairs  these  women  had  displayed 
an  active  interest  in  communal  welfare,  but  they  had  forgotten  to  gain  the 
tull  confidence  of  their  daughters:  not  one  of  these  girls  had  ever  been 
told  anything  of  the  mystery  of  life,  or  understood  the  physical  conse- 
quences of  her  act. 

A  group  of  seven  little  girls,  from  nine  to  twelve  years  of  age,  were 
the  victims  of  a  gray-haired  scoundrel,  all  led  on  by  a  child  of  twelve,  the 
first  victim,  who  persuaded  the  others  to  follow  her  example.  Candy  and 
a  few  pennies  were  sufficient  inducement  in  this  case. 


48  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

In  another  case,  a  group  of  half  a  dozen  girls  ot  fourteen  and  fifteen 
years  of  age  made  it  a  custom,  after  church  on  Sunday  morning,  to  visit 
a  man  who  gave  them  ice  cream  and  played  music  for  them,  and  the 
parents  thought  that  they  were  going  for  a  walk ! 

One  little  girl  of  nine  years  of  age,  who  was  kept  in  Ignorance  of  these 
things  by  her  parents,  was  the  victim  of  more  than  a  dozen  boys,  ranging 
in  age  from  ten  to  sixteen.     She  was  a  beautiful,  mnocent  child. 

A  widowed  mother  with  two  beautiful  daughters  of  fifteen  and  seven- 
teen made  no  attempt  to  instruct  either  of  them.  She  was  a  weak,  pleasure- 
loving  woman,  and  the  natural  results  followed.  Both  girls  were  faithful 
attendants  at  Sunday  school  and  church,  but  were  easy  victims  of  their 
school  companions.  The  younger  girl  was  subsequently  responsible  for 
leading  three  of  her  girl  Sunday-school  mates  into  like  adventures. 

A  mother  disregarded  some  rumors  that  came  to  her  about  her  eleven- 
year-old  daughter.  She  pooh-poohed  them,  declaring  that  she  knew  her 
child,  and  that  the  child's  "innocence"  and  ignorance  were  absolute  protec- 
tion to  her.  The  mother's  discovery  of  her  mistake  was  something  heart- 
breaking to  witness. 

Now  what  is  the  lesson  to  be  derived  from  these  and  many  like  experi- 
ences? As  I  said  before,  one  can  never  be  sure  that  knowledge  of  the 
physical  consequences  will  be  complete  protection  to  a  girl.  But  that 
knowledge  she  should  possess,  and  possess  early  as  a  first  covering.  While 
knowledge  alone,  without  character,  will  never  save,  the  fear  of  conse- 
quences will  ofttimes  brace  up  a  weak  girl  to  resist  to  the  uttermost. 

Some  wise  teachers  have  been  able  to  impart  much  valuable  informa- 
tion in  the  regular  course  in  physiology  and  hygiene  to  high-school  classes 
as  a  normal  and  natural  part  of  the  course  without  any  undue  emphasis. 
The  task,  however,  is  an  extremely  delicate  one,  and,  except  in  the  hands 
of  the  wisest  and  most  experienced,  is  apt  to  be  full  of  danger. 

Instruction  of  this  kind,  particularly  to  those  under  the  high-school  age, 
must  be  individual ;  it  cannot  therefore  be  given  by  the  already  overbur- 
dened public-school  teacher. 

The  greatest  care  must  be  exercised  in  imparting  such  knowledge.  Many 
parents  are  unequal  to  the  task  and  should  call  to  their  aid  the  wise  family 
physician.  Moreover,  as  the  children  whose  parents  cannot  or  will  not 
instruct  them  or  cause  them  to  be  instructed  by  the  physician  are  a  source 
of  danger  to  the  children  of  others;  as  children  cannot  be  raised  in  hot- 
houses nor  kept  from  contact  with  others — sooner  or  later  most  of  them 
will  go  to  school,  public  or  private;  as  one  vicious  child  will  influence  many 
companions,  the  importance  of  mothers'  associations  in  connection  with 
every  school  and  every  grade  of  the  school  cannot  be  too  strongly  urged. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  49 

Here  can  be  gathered  those  responsible  for  the  children's  associates;  here 
a  wise  parent  can  help  the  ignorant  and  thus  build  up  a  double  barrier 
about  her  own  child 

The  intelligent  parents  owe  a  double  duty:  they  owe  a  duty  to  their 
own  children  and  to  other  children,  and  the  duty  to  the  other  children  is 
not  only  from  a  humanitarian  standpoint,  to  fill  the  place  of  the  unworthy 
or  ignorant  parent,  but  indeed  from  the  selfish  standpoint :  to  protect  their 
own  children.  Even  the  best  and  wisest  mothers  frequently  blunder.  The 
carefully-trained  and  only  child  of  a  most  excellent  woman  created  a  great 
sensation  in  a  select  school  in  a  Western  city  by  immediately  confiding  all 
that  she  had  learned  at  home  to  her  schoolmates,  male  and  female,  with 
a  good  many  embellishments. 

An  innate  or  inbred  modesty  not  only  makes  a  girl  in  every  way  lovely, 
but  it  is  also  her  greatest  shield :  her  sole  completely  reliable  protection. 
A  girl  must  be  taught  that  to  give  even  the  tip  of  a  finger  to  a  boy  is 
wrong;  that  she  will  awaken  in  him  a  desire  which  some  boys  at  least  will 
lose  no  opportunity  to  satisfy;  but,  further,  she  should  be  told  why,  and 
what  it  means. 

Modesty  and  ignorance  have  too  long  been  thought  to  be  synonymous. 
Knowledge  of  the  dangers  may  in  itself  check  a  growing  forwardness ;  it 
cannot  but  strengthen  and  doubly  shield  those  who  are  of  pure  thought. 

Most  girls  of  sixteen  and  upward  do  not,  in  my  judgment,  go  wrong 
because  of  any  ignorance  of  the  consequences.  They  are  led  away  by  the 
excitement  of  the  moment  and  are  willing  to  take  the  risk.  A  girl  who 
has  been  working  all  day  in  a  factory  or  a  store  comes  home  at  night 
worn  out,  only  to  find  more  work  in  assisting  her  mother  in  taking  care 
of  the  little  ones;  her  home  is  in  the  dismal  regions  of  the  city  where  the 
streets  are  very  dirty,  the  lights  dim,  the  air  foul,  and  all  the  surroundings 
unattractive.  She  wants  some  of  the  happiness  and  brightness,  the  joy 
that  is  the  birthright  of  every  young  girl,  and  she  goes  out  in  search  of 
it.  If  the  Settlements  are  near  she  will  go  to  them  and  find  in  the  classes 
and  the  clubs,  the  music  and  the  dance,  a  happiness  that  she  seeks.  If  the 
municipalities  provide  recreation  centers,  such  as  are  afforded  in  the 
South  Park  system  of  Chicago,  she  will  be  attracted  there,  and  under 
decent  auspices  she  will  find  in  the  gymnasium,  or  the  library,  or  the  club- 
room,  or  the  dance,  the  opportunity  that  she  seeks. 

But  if  these  be  not  given,  then,  as  she  wanders  along  the  streets  she 
will  be  attracted  where  the  lights  are  brightest  and  the  sounds  are  gayest; 
to  her  untrained  eye  and  ear  brilliancy  spells  beauty.  She  seeks  the  com- 
panionship of  the  opposite  sex :  the  saloon  dance-hall  provides  not  only  this, 
but  also  the  dance  that  she  craves. 


so  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

Is  this  poor  girl  to  blame?  Society  itself,  not  fully  awakened  to  its 
obligation,  is  responsible.  To  condemn  and  to  destroy  the  bad  is  not 
enough:  it  must  be  replaced  by  the  positive  good:  a  living  wage  to  the 
working-girl ;  a  real  preparation  for  life,  including  an  industrial  education 
and  the  knowledge  of  herself,  for  the  schoolgirl;  and  the  opportunities  for 
healthful  and  pleasurable  recreation,  under  decent  influences  and  auspices, 
for  everyone.^* 

Section  4,  High-school  years  and  apprentices. — The  high 
school  already  renders  a  valuable  service  in  relation  to  the  habits 
and  character  of  youth,  and,  so  far  as  this  special  investigation  is 
concerned,  the  results  are  generally  very  encouraging.  There  is 
abundant  reason  for  believing  that,  on  the  whole,  the  American 
high-school  girl  is  generally  fully  equipped  to  protect  herself  and 
determined  to  do  so ;  and  that  the  high-school  boy  in  America  treats 
girls  and  women  with  respect.  Outdoor  sports  and  industrial 
training,  where  these  are  wisely  and  generou3ly  provided,  help  to 
give  outlet  to  energy,  wholesome  occupation  to  the  mind,  and  free- 
dom from  irritation  of  the  nervous  system  caused  by  too  pro- 
longed desk  work.  The  rumors  kept  afloat  by  enemies  of  the 
public  schools  that  they  are  centers  of  vice  cannot  be  traced  to  any 
reliable  source,  and  have  very  slight  justification  in  the  rare  in- 
stances of  scandal  which  are  inevitable  in  the  present  state  of  human 
nature.  Long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  town  and  city  high 
schools,  together  with  direct  inquiry  with  well-informed  persons  in 
all  parts  of  the  Union,  is  the  basis  of  this  somewhat  optimistic 
opinion. 

The  secret  fraternities  of  high-school  boys  and  girls,  with 
their  club  houses  inaccessible  to  the  supervision  of  teachers  and 
parents,  are  believed  by  school  authorities  to  be  a  moral  pest,  and 
deserving  of  abolition.  At  the  same  time  high-school  authorities 
are  unwise  to  assume  a  merely  negative  attitude;  they  are  morally 
bound  to  furnish  a  substitute  in  gymnasium,  playgrounds,  sports, 
winter  games,  tool  practice,  sociable  and  literary  and  artistic  enter- 
tainments, which  will  be  even  more  attractive  than  the  questionable 
secret  resorts  of  the  fraternity  houses.  The  assemblies  of  little 
cliques  of  pupils  are  not  so  suitable  to  our  democratic  public  schools 

"  For  an  excellent  discussion  see  Mme.  Schmid-Jager,  De  I'education  de  nos 
mies,  Lausanne,  1904. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  $1 

as  assemblies  open,  with  the  very  best  means  of  recreation  and 
culture,  to  all  members  of  the  school.  Very  often  the  finest  artistic 
talent  belongs  to  those  pupils  who  are  too  poor  to  pay  the  dues 
in  a  fraternity  or  private  club. 

The  better  modern  high  schools  furnish  the  scientific  founda- 
tion for  knowledge  of  the  sexual  nature  through  their  instruction 
in  biology,  botany,  zoology,  physiology,  hygiene,  and  a  sound 
physical  culture  to  fortify  the  moral  nature  in  its  gymnastic  and 
other  exercises.  We  here  insert  statements  by  competent  persons 
illustrating  good  methods. 

Independently  of  the  above  question,  "At  what  ages  shall  public  schools 
instruct  in  the  several  details,"  whose  answer  further  experimentation  by 
teachers  must  settle,  is  the  importance  of  a  clear  conception  of  the  informa- 
tion to  which  youth  is  entitled  for  its  own  protection  and  the  good  of  society. 
Two  basic  principles  are :  Teach  no  evil,  and  Teach  in  time  to  preserve 
physical  and  moral  well-being.  Every  boy  and  girl  has  a  claim  to  knowl- 
edge: (i)  of  the  functions  and  hygiene  of  the  chief  organs  of  the  body, 
including  the  reproductive  system ;  (2)  of  the  meaning  of  sex,  marriage, 
home-making;  of  the  sacredness  of  the  prenatal  life,  the  influences  of 
heredity,  and  the  consequent  duty  of  right  living  even  when  young;  of  the 
responsibilities  of  parenthood.  Mention  has  already  been  made  of  certain 
schools'  demonstration  of  the  wholesomeness,  truthfulness,  and  practicability 
of  the  biologic  method  in  preference  to  merely  moral  statements  for  im- 
pressing this  knowledge,  beginning  in  very  early  years;  (3)  that  handHng 
the  organs  of  reproduction,  except  as  necessary  for  cleanliness,  injures 
sometimes  health,  and  always  mind,  character,  sense  of  honor,  causing 
greater  mental  and  moral  harm  as  one  grows  older  .  .  .  . ;  (4)  of  the  most 
prevalent  contagious  diseases,  such  as  tuberculosis,  syphilis,  gonorrhea;  their 
danger  to  every  person  as  indicated  by  statistics  of  wide  prevalence;  their 
many  methods  of  communication ;  including  the  fact  that  syphilis  and 
gonorrhea  exist  almost  universally  among  those  leading  immoral  lives,  a 
reason  for  avoiding  such  men  and  women  as  one  avoids  those  with  dipth- 
eria,  and  smallpox;  that  they  are  more  difficult  to  cure  than  any  other  con- 
tagious disease  and  that  their  harm  is  more  far  reaching;  (5)  of  the  nor- 
mal phenomena  of  adolescence;  the  physiologic  influence  on  health,  mind 
and  morals  of  clean  thoughts,  reading,  conversation,  entertainments,  com- 
panions; the  value  of  occupation  and  physical  exercise  in  keeping  thoughts 
and  habits  and  health  good;  the  avoidance  of  tobacco,  alcoholic  drinks 
(including  patent  medicines,  many  containing  alcohol),  the  advertisements 
of  "doctors"  and  remedies"   found  in  newspapers,  magazines,  etc. 


52  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

Every  girl  has  a  claim  to  instruction  concerning  the  hygiene  of  men- 
struation, the  function  and  sacredness  of  motherhood,  and  care  of  infants. 

Every  boy  has  a  claim  to  instruction  concerning  the  value  of  conscience 
and  avoidance  of  ignorant  and  evil  advisers  in  this  matter ;  the  sacredness 
of  fatherhood,  and  the  duty  of  protecting  all  girls  and  women  from  evil  as 
he  would  his  sister  or  his  mother.** 

And  further: 

1.  The  physiology  and  hygiene  of  sex  when  successfully  taught  is  an 
essential  part  of  the  course  where  it  logically  belongs.  It  must  not  be 
interjected. 

2.  Attention  is  specially  given  to  preparing  the  pupils  mind  for  human 
considerations  by  a  carefully  developed  study  of  plant  and  animal  phe- 
nomena. 

3.  The  teachers  have  made  special  study  of  biologic  subjects;  and  there 
are  "special"  or  "departmental  teachers"  for  pupils  over  ten  years  of  age. 

4.  Beginning  with  cell  reproduction,  the  course  traces  the  evolution  of 
sex  along  with  other  functions;   it  is  not  given  undue  prominence. 

5.  Pupils — boys  and  girls — follow  this  systematic  course  with  interest, 
frankness,  clean-mindedness,  and  evident  benefit. 

6.  It  has  developed  naturally,  wholesomely,  and  so  unconsciously  that 
no  comments  and  criticisms  have  been  aroused  among  either  parents  or 
school  authorities. 

7.  The  trend  of  these  special  instructors  is  to  give  it  at  and  just  before 
puberty,  i.  e.,  from  eleven  to  fifteen  years  of  age. 

The  condition  of  public  opinion  in  a  town  or  city  will  deter- 
mine what  can  be  taught  and  the  method  of  presentation. 

In  some  places  instruction  must  be  given  in  classes  for  boys  and 
girls  separately;  in  others  they  are  taught  together;  so  far  as  the 
biological  facts  are  concerned,  without  criticism  of  parents. 

In  certain  places  the  more  specific  instruction  may  be  given  out- 
side school  hours,  with  the  permission  of  school  authorities  and 
parents,  when  there  is  opposition  to  public  instruction. 

Night  schools. — The  urban  night  schools  have  already  aided 
many  immigrants  to  acquire  our  language,  and  enabled  youth  and 
adults  to  make  up  for  former  neglect  or  misfortune  in  relation  to 
the  elements  of  knowledge.  These  night  schools  furnish  an  oppor- 
tunity for  giving  such  knowledge  of  hygiene  as  is  necessary  for  per- 

*  From  Educational  Pamphlet  No.  2,  Instruction  in  the  Physiology  and 
Hygiene  of  Sex,  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  53 

sonal  care  of  health  and  for  the  care  of  infants  and  the  training  of 
children  and  youth.  The  material  and  method  of  formal  instruc- 
tion in  matters  of  sex  have  elsewhere  been  indicated. 

Continuation  schools. — We  greet  with  satisfaction  the  recent 
movement  to  establish  and  maintain  schools  for  youth,  apprentices 
in  trades,  and  employers  of  mercantile  establishments.  Factories 
and  department  stores  are  only  to  a  limited  extent  open  for  sexual 
instruction  of  employees.  Women's  clubs  and  societies  of  social 
hygiene,  in  their  attempts  to  gather  the  employees  for  this  pur- 
pose have  often  met  with  insurmountable  obstacles :  the  unwill- 
ingness of  employers  to  give  up  the  time  of  the  wage-earners ;  the 
antagonism  of  the  young  people  and  of  their  parents;  the  resent- 
ment felt  at  the  suggestion  that  they  stand  in  any  need  of  warning, 
and  other  difficulties.  In  the  continuation  schools  there  is  a  better 
opportunity  of  giving  familiar  lectures  on  "social  hygiene"  to 
young  people  exposed  to  extreme  temptation  and  having  little 
opportunity  of  learning  what  they  most  need  to  know.  Women 
physicians  can  render  a  very  great  service  to  girls  and  young 
women  in  connection  with  the  classes  in  domestic  science,  house- 
keeping arts,  etc. 

Section  5.  College  years — young  men. — What  would  a  father 
write  to  a  son  beginning  college  life?  We  cite  a  medical  answer. 
He  speaks  of  self -abuse  as  a  passing  error  of  early  puberty,  not  so 
evil  as  represented  by  quacks,  yet  a  habit  to  be  cured  as  soon  as 
possible. 

The  great  temptation  which  you  are  sure  to  encounter  is  the  foolish 
assertion  that  sexual  congress  is  necessary  for  health — a  most  pernicious 
doctrine  carefully  kept  alive  by  those  who  live  upon  the  trade  of  prostitu- 
tion either  directly  or  indirectly.  It  is  the  opposite  of  the  truth,  for  we 
know  that  the  whole  sexual  apparatus,  including  all  the  brain  and  nerve 
centers  involved,  will  remain  normal  permanently  without  intercourse. 
Moreover,  it  is  known  that  hard  work  and  clean  reading  repress  passions, 
while  idleness,  unclean  literature,  and  luxurious  dramas  excite  them  to  an 
abnormal  degree. 

The  prostitute  herself  lives  in  that  life  only  nine  years  and  one  investi- 
gator says  but  five.  Some  say  she  dies  of  alcoholism,  but  the  more  com- 
mon opinion  is  that  the  cause  is  gonorrhea.  Most  of  them  are  degenerates 
— the  female  equivalent  of  the  male  criminal.  Indeed  they  are  mostly 
criminals  themselves,  of  poor  health,  poor  physique,  neurasthenic,  unable  to 


54  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

work,  unable  to  resist  the  ravages  of  any  disease,  and  consequently  are  easy 
victims  of  this  one.  In  addition,  they  are  generally  of  feeble  intelligence 
uneducated,  and  unfit  for  civilization — the  rejects — and  it  is  degrading  even 
to  meet  them 

Live  a  clean,  outdoor  life,  as  active  as  circumstances  permit,  eat  good 
food  with  sufficient  animal  ingredients,  sleep  at  least  nine  hours  a  day — 
and  your  body  will  behave  itself  in  every  part.  Don't  worry  over  imagi- 
nary conditions ;  and  believe  me  that  sexual  continence  is  normal.  Above 
all,  take  my  word  for  it,  that  the  dreadful  quack  literature  on  sexual 
matters  is  mostly  false,  and  is  prepared  by  criminals  for  swindling  pur- 
poses solely.  Certain  newspapers  are  public  enemies  in  that  they  yearly 
absorb  millions  of  dollars  for  advertising  the  sexual  swindlers,  and  most  of 
the  money  is  filched  from  the  pockets  of  mere  boys. 

Whenever  a  companion  says  he  believes  in  a  short  life  and  a  merry 
one,  put  him  down  as  a  fool  and  leave  the  room.  The  only  good  such 
people  do  is  to  enrich  the  undertakers.     Your  affectionate  Dad.** 

All  the  points  made  in  this  excerpt  are  urged  in  an  address  to 
the  students  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  by  Robert  N. 
Willson,  M.D.,  who  for  over  three  years  had  acted  as  one  of  the 
physicians  to  the  students  of  that  great  institution.  His  mono- 
graph is  entitled  The  Social  Evil  in  University  Life,  published  by 
the  Vir  Publishing  Company,  Philadelphia.  The  book  of  Dr.  W. 
S.  Hall  on  Reproduction  anl  Sexual  Hygiene  has  special  value  for 
young  men  entering  college,  and  the  author  has  been  very  suc- 
cessful in  treating  this  subject  before  audiences  of  young  men  in 
colleges. 

VI.    TRAINING   OF   TEACHERS 

We  have  now  offered  evidence  for  the  conclusion  that  the 
public  schools  cannot  altogether  escape  responsibility  for  the  edu- 
cation of  children  and  youth  in  matters  of  the  sexual  life,  and  we 
have  endeavored  to  show  precisely  the  extent  and  limitations  of 
this  responsibility.  It  may  be  an  open  question  whether  a  particu- 
lar teacher  ought  to  give  any  instruction  whatever  on  the  subject, 
even  by  casual  allusion;  but  there  is  no  room  for  reasonable  doubt 
that  every  teacher  should  know  the  essential  facts  relating  to  this 
sphere  of  moral  activity.  The  teacher  needs  this  knowledge  for 
personal  guidance  and  safety,  and  also  in  order  to  understand  the 

"  "The  Venereal  Peril,  a  Letter  from  a  Physician  to  His  Son  in  College," 
A'nerican  Medicine,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  N.  S.,  July,  1906,  pp.  186-90. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  55 

difficulties,  temptations,  fears,  hopes,  dangers,  and  duties  of  the 
pupils.  Only  when  a  teacher  knows  the  entire  situation  can  he 
most  wisely  help  children  and  youth  by  general  hygiene,  diversion 
of  interests,  outdoor  sport,  manual  exercises,  gymnastics,  and  also 
by  elevation  of  ideals  in  the  teaching  of  history,  literature,  and 
civics. 

It  seems  clear  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state  and  of  city  school 
authorities  to  provide  lectures  and  laboratory  instruction  for  those 
teachers  who  have  come  to  recognize  the  need.  Nature-study,  so 
far  as  it  is  genuinely  scientific  and  not  aesthetic,  is  simply  a  method 
of  teaching  physics,  chemistry,  botany,  zoology,  and  biology ;  and  it 
would  seem  that  by  means  of  courses  in  these  sciences  is  the  proper 
preparation  for  giving  sound  instruction  in  these  fields  to  be 
applied.  The  teachers  of  public  schools  may  be  somewhat  better 
fitted  for  their  tasks,  however  interpreted,  by  lectures  from  phy- 
sicians. Attendance  on  such  lectures,  when  there  is  objection, 
should  be  voluntary  and  not  required. 

Forel  ^^  urges  the  importance  of  understanding  the  nature  anl 
origin  of  inherited  abnormalities  (sadism,  homo-sexuality,  etc.). 
Sometimes  a  teacher  may  treat  these  rare  and  monstrous  cases  as 
if  they  were  normal  and  could  be  educated  out  of  their  perversions. 
But  since  their  disorder  arises  from  a  constitutional,  innate,  and 
inherited  condition,  the  process  of  education  does  not  reach  the 
origin  of  the  difficulty.  All  that  a  teacher  can  do  is  to  discover  the 
abnormal  person  and  insist  upon  removal  to  an  institution  where  he 
or  she  can  have  special  treatment  and  not  corrupt  normal  children 
and  youth.    This  is  work  for  physicians,  not  for  teachers. 

VII.      PREPARATION  OF  YOUNG  PARENTS  FOR  THEIR  DUTIES 

It  is  very  generally  agreed  that,  so  far  as  possible,  parents 
should  instruct,  warn,  and  train  their  own  children  in  all  matters 
of  conduct,  and,  particularly,  in  relation  to  sexual  life.  But  parents 
cannot  know  what  to  teach  and  how  to  train  without  first  being 
taught.  Under  present  conventional  conditions  no  systematic 
arrangements  are  made  to  prepare  parents  for  this  part  of  their 
duty ;  it  is  neglected  most  of  all.  While  the  children  and  youth  are 
growing  up  the  whole  matter  is  rigorously  excluded  by  universal 

^  Die  sexuelle  Frage,  p.  526. 


56  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

consent  from  family  and  school  and  Sunday-school  instruction;  the 
books  on  physiology  and  hygiene  avoid  the  whole  matter,  as  if 
there  were  no  reproductive  life,  no  sexual  facts.  The  minister  in 
his  pulpit  and  pastoral  ministrations  is  compelled  by  social  con- 
ventions to  touch  the  matter  only  in  a  very  vague  way,  absolutely 
without  fundamental  and  scientific  information.  The  knowledge 
that  is  gained  usually  comes  from  ignorant,  incompetent,  and 
otherwise  unfit  persons,  and  in  a  way  to  surround  the  whole  subject 
with  a  poisonous  atmosphere.  If  the  teaching  profession,  whose 
social  function  it  is  to  prepare  people  for  life,  makes  no  provision 
for  this  vital  matter,  how  are  the  parents  to  perform  their  duty? 
Who  will  teach  them  when  the  entire  teaching  profession  avoids 
this  task?  The  physicians  have  the  knowledge  but  they  are  not 
consulted  except  in  the  crisis  of  pain,  disease,  serious  perversion,  and 
then  the  instruction  comes  too  late,  and  it  is  out  of  all  relation  to 
the  normal  development  of  childhood  and  youth. 

Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  essays  on  "Education,"  ridicules  the 
folly  of  men  who  are  enthusiastic  students  of  the  best  methods  of 
raising  prize  pigs,  but  consider  the  proper  rearing  of  children 
beneath  their  manly  dignity.  Of  one  gap  in  our  scheme  of  edu- 
cation he  writes  with  acerbity: 

If  by  some  strange  chance  not  a  vestige  of  us  descended  to  the  remote 
future  save  a  pile  of  our  school  books  or  some  college  examination  papers, 
we  may  imagine  how  puzzled  an  antiquary  of  the  period  would  be  on 
finding  in  them  no  indication  that  the  learners  were  ever  likely  to  be  parents. 
"This  must  have  been  the  curriculum  for  their  celibates,"  we  may  fancy  him 
concluding.  "I  perceive  here  an  elaborate  preparation  for  many  things : 
especially  for  reading  the  books  of  extinct  nations  and  of  coexisting  nations 
(from  which  indeed  it  seems  clear  that  these  people  had  very  little  worth 
reading  in  their  own  tongue)  ;  but  I  find  no  reference  whatever  to  the 
bringing  up  of  children.  They  could  not  have  been  so  absurd  as  to  omit 
all  training  for  this  gravest  of  responsibilities.  Evidently,  then,  this  was 
the  school  course  of  one  of  their  monastic  orders." 

But  if  this  antiquarian  should  examine  the  textbooks  on  physi- 
ology and  hygiene  he  would  search  in  vain  for  any  hint  of  the 
existence  of  that  part  of  the  human  system  on  which  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  human  race  depends,  or  for  any  guidance  of  youth  in 
respect  to  the  perils  of  the  reproductive  organs  or  their  hygiene. 


AGENCIES  AND  METHODS  57 

We  must  at  this  point  give  at  least  brief  attention  to  the  duty 
of  the  teaching  profession  in  relation  to  this  sacred  task  of  parent- 
hood. 

The  medical  profession  possesses  the  expert  knowledge  re- 
quired, and  its  members  are  coming  to  recognize  their  obligation. 
But  the  present  discussion  is  for  educators  rather  than  for  phy- 
sicians. To  correct  many  of  the  worst  abuses  of  sexual  impulse 
all  who  influence  childhood  and  youth  should  seek,  so  far  as  possi- 
ble, to  reveal  to  the  young  the  far-reaching  social  significance  of  this 
impulse  and  of  the  reproductive  activity  in  general.  The  severest 
temptation  comes  when  merely  selfish  gratification  is  uppermost 
in  thought.  It  should  not  be  difficult  to  make  clear  to  children  and 
youth  that  the  sexual  motives  find  their  larger  significance  in  the 
perpetuation  of  the  race;  that  the  birth  and  nurture  of  children  are 
the  normal  results  of  union  of  the  sexes;  that  family  affection  and 
spiritual  enjoyments  of  parents  and  children  are  to  be  thought  of 
principally;  that  enfeebled  and  diseased  parents  injure  the  com- 
munity and  the  nation;  that  conduct  in  youth,  before  marriage,  has 
a  direct  bearing  on  the  citizenship  of  the  future.  When  the  minds 
of  the  young  are  thus  irradiated  with  the  larger  and  finer  ideals  of 
morality,  patriotism,  and  religion  the  inhibitory  power  of  the  will 
is  increased  when  temptation  comes. 

The  more  general  establishment  of  schools  in  which  the  arts  of 
housekeeping  are  taught  offers  an  opportunity  for  the  preparation 
of  girls  for  their  future  duties  as  wives  and  mothers.  It  does  not 
seem  at  all  difficult  to  extend  the  instruction  in  such  classes  to 
include  the  care  of  the  mother  herself  before  and  after  the  birth  of 
infants,  the  care  of  the  baby,  the  elements  of  sick  nursing,  etc. 

The  special  night-school  and  continuation-school  courses  already 
discussed  afford  opportunity  for  teaching  young  men  their  duties  as 
future  parents  and  the  effect  of  their  conduct  before  marriage  on 
the  health,  efficiency,  and  character  of  their  offspring,  in  connection 
with  the  teaching  of  physical  science,  hygiene,  civics,  literature, 
and  history. 

VIII.    THE   RELIGIOUS   ORGANIZATIONS 

The  really  representative  leaders  of  the  church  have  always  stood 
for  sexual  purity.  .Asceticism  itself  has  often  been  an  extreme 
reaction   against  the  baseness   and  cruelty  of  unbridled   appetite. 


58  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

Religion,  as  presented  in  our  age,  sanctions  the  assured  teachings 
of  science  and  morality.  We  might  therefore  expect  the  aid  of  the 
powerful  associations  of  religious  spirit  in  this  movement  to  edu- 
cate the  public  conscience  and  bring  to  it  the  new  light  which  has 
broken  forth  from  the  revelations  of  the  medical  profession. 
Numerous  evidences  indicate  that  this  expectation  will  not  be  dis- 
appointed. The  recent  organizations  for  social  service  in  several 
denominations  are  already  considering  this  theme.  The  brother- 
hoods could  undertake  no  more  fraternal  or  chivalrous  task  than  to 
enlist  under  the  white  cross  banner  for  the  protection  of  innocent 
childhood  and  pure  womanhood. 

The  church  classes  of  young  men  have  in  some  places  heard  the 
authoritative  lessons  of  high-minded  medical  men  with  reverence 
and  profit.  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  have  con- 
ducted investigations,  provided  straight,  manly  addresses  to  boys 
and  men,  and,  best  of  all,  have  in  their  athletic,  educational,  and 
religious  work  successfully  fortified  the  better  nature  of  their  mem- 
bers and  associates.  Altogether  the  nobler  day  has  dawned;  a 
higher  standard  has  been  accepted  and  will  be  enforced  by  all  the 
persuasions  of  teachers,  pastors,  journalists,  physicians,  and  good 
women.  Deeper  than  all,  over  all,  is  a  spirit  of  holiness  which 
leaves  no  man  without  an  internal  monitor,  and  whose  eternal 
patience  broods  over  the  struggles  of  humanity  in  its  age-long  toil 
to  discover  and  realize  the  divine  purpose  immanent  in  all  history. 


APPENDIX 

To  illustrate,  extend,  and  confirm  the  principles  advocated  in  the 
preceding  pages  we  add  summaries  of  discussions  by  very  enlight- 
ened and  competent  persons  in  this  country  and  abroad ;  partly  in 
order  that  the  argument  may  not  rest  on  the  experience  and  reflec- 
tion of  one  person.     Some  repetition  is  unavoidable. 

DISCUSSION  OF  GERMAN  SOCIETY  ON  VENEREAL  DISEASES 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  instructive  discussions  in  this  depart- 
ment of  education  was  that  called  out  by  a  congress  of  the  Ger- 
man Society  for  Fighting  Venereal  Diseases ;  and  we  cite  the  prin- 
cipal conclusions  of  the  volume  of  proceedings.  At  the  close  of  the 
congress  one  of  the  great  medical  specialists  said : 

I  am  glad  to  note  the  high  degree  of  unanimity  of  this  congress  in 
respect  to  the  question  of  sexual  pedagogics  and  education,  crowned  with 
the  conviction  that  the  education  of  our  youth,  in  order  to  lead  to  a  sound 
sexual  life,  must,  much  more  strongly  than  hitherto,  emphasize  strengthen- 
ing of  the  body,  the  improvement  of  character  and  training  of  the  will,  the 
exaltation  of  the  soul's  life,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  spirit  with  higher 
values.  That  we  have  here  to  do  with  great  and  comprehensive  problems 
of  education,  is  clear  to  us  all,  but  it  will  need  more  than  another  genera- 
tion in  order  to  translate  into  reality  what  sweeps  before  the  vision  of  us 
all  as  the  task  of  such  an  education. 

Even  in  respect  to  sexual  instruction  in  a  narrow  sense  complete  unan- 
imity rules  so  far  that  we  hold  that  such  an  instruction  is  urgently  needed 
in  general,  and  further,  that  along  with  the  parents,  who  unfortunately  on 
various  grounds  are  only  prepared  to  undertake  this  instruction  in  small 
numbers,  the  schools  must  carry  the  burden.  We  would  show  that  the  doc- 
trine of  reproduction  in  the  plant  and  animal  world  should  maintain  its 
proper  place  in  the  range  of  biological  instruction.  Difference  of  opinion 
exists  only  in  respect  to  this  point :  Can  the  affairs  of  sexual  life  of  man 
himself,  and  especially  the  sexual  act,  be  an  object  of  instruction? 

Here  is,  without  doubt,  the  most  important  point  of  the  whole  problem. 
On  one  side  is  the  wish  to  make  accessible  to  youth,  in  place  of  the  turbid 
sources  of  knowledge,  the  pure  sources,  and  on  the  other  hand  the  effort 
to  mediate  this  knowledge  without  injury  to  modesty.    Here  there  is  a  want 

59 


6o  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

of  clearness  and  a  difficulty  which  does  not  seem  to  me,  m  tfte  proceedings 
of  our  congress,  yet  to  be  removed.  On  this  point  further  work  and  dis- 
cussion must  be  given  to  the  task. 

Some  things  appear  to  me,  however,  according  to  the  results  of  our 
discussion,  even  now  completely  ready  for  expression.  Thus  there  is  the 
generally  acknowledged  necessity  of  good  instruction  and  warning  to  youth, 
at  and  after  puberty;  that  is,  to  the  graduates  of  the  secondary  schools 
and  the  pupils  of  the  continuation  and  trade  schools,  and  pupils  of  the 
higher  classes  of  the  higher  schools,  as  well  as  to  the  girls  who  are  about 
to  leave  school.  The  instruction  of  these  groups  is  not  only  ready  for 
expression,  but  also  ripe  for  carrying  into  effect.  It  will  be  the  duty  of 
the  authorities,  now  that  the  necessity  for  such  an  instruction  is  shown, 
to  provide  means  to  embody  this  instruction  systematically  in  the 
entire  system  of  education,  and  if  this  is  not  done,  it  will  be  the  duty  of 
our  society  to  give  an  example  to  the  authorities.  It  is  our  urgent  duty, 
and  also  a  duty  of  the  state  to  promote  the  sexual  education  of  the  teachers 
in  the  public  schools,  as  in  the  higher  schools,  and,  since  the  universities  and 
normal  schools  do  not  provide  such  instruction,  provisionally  to  fill  the  gap. 
by  courses  for  teachers.  Further,  by  social  evenings  with  parents,  bulletins, 
etc,  we  should  educate  parents  for  their  task.* 

The  conclusions  of  this  same  congress  in  1907,  were  as  follows : 

The  German  Society  for  Fighting  Venereal  Diseases,  in  the  interest  of 
endangered  health  of  the  people,  holds  that  a  fundamental  reform  in  sexual 
pedagogics  is  indispensable. 

In  this  task  the  home  and  school  must  participate,  the  home  by  giving 
to  the  physical  training  a  larger  place  than  hitherto,  and  furnishing  to  the 
curious  child,  in  respect  to  the  question  of  the  origin  of  life,  an  answer 
which  corresponds  to  the  childish  understanding,  but  which  is  always  true, 
and  the  school,  while  it  also  helps  physical  and  moral  development,  along 
with  the  purely  intellectual  instruction,  should  also  communicate  in  the 
ordinary  programme  of  study  accurate  knowledge  in  respect  to  the  ele- 
mental facts  of  the  sexual  life  of  plants,  animals,  and  human  beings. 

Such  instruction  of  the  growing  generation  given  in  a  way  adapted  to 
the  understanding,  and  so  as  to  guard  modesty,  imperceptibly  woven  in 
with  ordinary  instruction,  and  not  going  too  much  into  details,  will  not 
cause  injury,  but  rather  prepares  the  ground  for  a  sound  and  natural  idea 
of  the  sexual  life.  Particular  instruction  as  to  the  dangers  of  the  sexual 
life  and  warning  in  respect  to  the  dangers  of  venereal  diseases,  belongs, 
in  the  main,  to  the  years  of  puberty.    A  systematic  instruction  is  not  possi- 

'  Blaschko,  Sexualpddagogik,  pp.  274,  275. 


APPENDIX  61 

ble,  however,  while  the  teachers  and  parents,  themselves,  are  not  prepared 
to  give  it.  _ 

The  first  demand,  therefore,  is  for  the  instruction  of  teachers  in  courses 
for  teachers  and  candidates  for  teachers'  positions  in  seminaries  and  uni- 
versities, and  of  parents  by  means  of  social  evenings  and  bulletins.  But 
even  today,  the  instruction  of  members  of  the  higher  classes,  in  the  higher 
institutions  of  education,  in  continuation  and  trade  schools,  etc.,  can  be 
given  by  pedagogically  educated  physicians  and  hj'gienically  educated 
teachers,  in  a  programme  of  general  hygienic  instruction.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  higher  school  authorities,  and  of  each  state  of  the  nation,  to  fix 
regulations  for  the  material  of  instruction  in  different  kinds  of  schools  and 
for  different  ages. 

In  the  same  volume  are  various  discussions  by  experts.  We 
give  some  of  the  conclusions  and  arguments  of  individual  speakers : 

CONCLUSIONS  OF  MAX  ENDERLIN,   HEAD  TEACHER  OF  MANNHEIM,  ON 
THE   SUBJECT  OF  THE  SEXUAL   QUESTION    IN    PUBLIC   SCHOOLS 

1.  In  conseqence  of  the  general  knowledge  of  evils  existing  in  the 
sexual-hygienic,  and  sexual-ethical  field,  in  which  we  have  discovered  most 
serious  injuries  to  our  population,  it  is  recognized  more  and  more  widely 
that,  even  in  the  education  of  the  rising  generation,  something  must  be 
done  in  order  to  check  these  evil  conditions  and  to  avert  from  our  youth 
the  dangers  which  spring  from  them  in  respect  to  physical,  spiritual,  and 
moral  development. 

2.  Education  can  perform  its  task  in  this  field :  (a)  in  the  direct  path 
by  instruction  in  respect  to  the  facts  of  sexual  life,  and  (&)  indirectly  by 
suitable  measures  of  sexual  dietetics  and  general  education. 

(o)  Sexual  instruction. — The  traditional  secrecy  with  which,  in  home 
and  school  hitherto,  all  sexual  matters  have  been  treated  is  proved  to  us  to 
be  a  great  mistake.  It  even  appears  that  it  is  one  of  the  principal  causes 
of  the  conditions  of  which  we  have  so  much  to  complain  in  the  sexual 
life.  In  place  of  this  we  must  henceforth  provide  instruction.  By  that 
we  understand  a  simple,  direct,  and  faithful  explanation  of  all  the  questions 
which  concern  the  origin  and  development  of  plants  and  animals  and  human 
beings.  Sexual  information  offers  a  task  in  which  the  family  and  school 
must  share. 

In  the  school,  the  handling  of  sexual  relations  for  the  most  part  belongs 
to  nature-study.  The  sexual  material  should  not  be  treated  as  something 
apart,  but  must  represent  a  factor  in  the  system  of  biological  phenomena, 
through  which  the  maintenance  and  origin  and  increase  of  life  is  regu- 
lated, and   so  must  be  divided  up  through  the  other  courses  of  the  years 


62  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

with  other  botanical,  zoological,  and  anthropological  instruction.  Informa- 
tion in  respect  to  the  structure  of  the  human  organs  of  sex  and  the  sexual 
act,  as  well  as  explanation  of  venereal  diseases  are  naturally  to  be  excluded  1 

from  the  public  school.  On  the  other  hand,  pupils  must  distinctly  and  forci- 
bly be  made  aware  of  the  importance  of  the  undisturbed  development  of 
the  sexual  organs.  In  the  treatment  of  the  ethical  side  of  the  sexual  ques- 
tions, religion  and  the  general  moral  teaching  of  history  can  render  impor- 
tant services.  These  studies  can  help  particularly  when  the  sexual  views 
are  to  be  lifted  out  of  the  swamp  of  impure  modes  of  thinking. 

(&)  Measures  of  sexual  dietetics  and  of  general  education. — With 
special  sexual  information,  there  must  go  hand  in  hand  an  awakening  of  a 
sense  of  responsibility  in  the  child,  in  relation  to  himself  and  society,  and 
a  strengthening  of  self-respect  by  all  means  which  are  suited  to  produce 
a  certain  pride  in  his  physical  powers  and  moral  purity.  Important,  also, 
is  an  intensified  physical  culture.  The  afternoons  should  be  largely  free 
for  play  and  exercise  of  sports.  Adequate  opportunity  should  be  given  to 
the  pupil  for  hardening  his  body,  for  constant  exercise  in  the  control  of 
the  impulses  of  the  senses,  and  to  conquest  of  the  demands  of  the  body, 
and  to  the  early  subordination  of  his  life  of  impulse  to  support  the  intel- 
lectual interests.  The  principal  task  of  education  is  in  the  field  of  will  and 
character.  In  order  to  diminish  the  hours  of  sitting,  which  favors  the  habit 
of  self-abuse,  we  recommend  in  part  the  removal  of  instruction  to  the  open 
air,  into  a  garden  or  other  open  place.  Further,  we  recommend  for  this 
purpose  the  transformation  of  certain  studies  into  experimental  exercises,  1 
which  permit  the  child  not  merely  passively  but  actively  to  advance  his 
knowledge.  A  high  importance  must  be  given  to  work  in  the  crafts,  since 
it  develops  a  strong  force  of  will  and  fills  the  interest  of  the  child  with 
technical  and  artistic  problems  which  tend  to  diminish  an  excess  of  sexual 
impulses. 

Artistic  education  has  a  task,  particularly  for  natural  apprehension  of 
what  is  of  value  in  the  sex  life.  Especially  should  the  child  be  immunized 
against  impure  influences  by  being  accustomed  early  to  the  nude  in  art 
and  nature.  Therefore  the  artistic  representations  of  the  human  form,  as 
nude,  in  monuments,  sculptures,  and  the  like  should  not  be  concealed  from 
the  pupil  in  the  public  schools.  The  same  is  true  of  the  pure  and  chaste 
in  the  literature  of  romantic  love.  For  this  early  habituation,  the  coedu- 
cation of  boys  and  girls  is  to  be  recommended.  In  order  to  secure  the 
co-operation  of  the  parental  home  with  the  views  of  the  school,  in  the  field  of 
sexual  education,  the  institution  of  parents'  associations  is  to  be  recom- 
mended; and  in  addition,  the  parents  may  be  taught  by  bulletins,  pamph- 
lets, popular  lectures,  and  articles  in  the  press. 


APPENDIX  63 

The  right  to  give  instruction  in  respect  to  sexual  matters  must  be  legally 
secured  to  the  school. 

More  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,  the  great  educator,  Salz- 
mann,  in  his  work,  Secret  Sins  of  Youth,  proposed  a  plan  of  gradual  instruc- 
tion :  "We  speak  first  of  the  reproduction  of  plants,  before  we  speak  of  the 
reproduction  of  mammals  and  human  beings.  We  show  the  child  the  male 
and  female  blossoms  of  plants,  and  accustom  them  to  the  expressions, 
pollen,  ovary,  fruit,  and  so  on,  and  show  them  how  the  pollen  of  the  male 
blossom  must  fall  on  the  female,  if  it  is  to  bear  fruit.  In  this  way,  we 
gain  a  method  of  speaking  to  the  child  without  embarrassment  of  the  male 
and  female  parts,  of  seed,  conception,  and  the  like,  and  these  are  accus- 
tomed, without  shock,  to  hear  these  stories." 

Modern  knowledge  has  hardly  surpassed  these  suggestions  of  method. 
It  has  been  said  that  parents  should  communicate  this  knowledge,  but  only 
a  small  minority  of  parents  are  in  possession  of  the  knowledge  to  under- 
take giving  information  in  this  way,  since  only  a  few  of  them  possess 
knowledge  of  physical  science,  which  is  necessary  to  consider  the  sexual 
problem  of  man  in  connection  with  the  facts  of  reproduction  about  animals 
and  plants,  and  to  illustrate  the  similarity  of  the  sexual  processes  in  the 
entire  kingdom  of  organic  life.  Often  the  parents  have  not  the  necessary 
pedagogical  skill  and  the  necessary  freedom  from  embarrassment  to  speak 
with  their  children  in  respect  to  things  which  they  have  hitherto  consid- 
ered matters  which  are  to  be  spoken  of  with  shame.  Therefore  the  school 
must  give  help. 

Enderlin,  as  others,  recommends  that  this  instruction  should  be 
given  in  the  course  of  nature-study.  He  insists  that  one  or  two 
hours  of  the  week  are  not  sufficient  for  such  studies,  and  he  urges 
that  the  hours  for  nature-study,  in  the  schools  of  Germany,  be 
increased.  He  speaks  of  the  opposition  of  parents  to  this  kind  of 
instruction,  and  the  tendency  of  teachers  to  refer  such  matters  to 
the  school  physician.  Admitting  that  the  physician  has  a  task, 
especially  in  connection  with  the  older  pupils  and  in  individual 
cases,  Enderlin  insists  that  we  have  here  to  do  essentially  with  an 
educational  problem,  and  in  this  field,  the  teacher  is  the  highest 
authority  and  should  remain  such.  He  further  insists  that  only 
the  teacher  is  in  a  position  to  give  sexual  instruction,  in  connection 
with  other  instruction.  Only  he  can  find  the  necessary  points  of  con- 
tact, while  if  the  duty  is  given  to  the  physician,  the  sexual  matters 
must  be  torn  out  of  relation  with  the  other  branches  of  studv. 


64  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

The  teacher  can  obtain  the  required  knowledge,  if  he  does  not 
already  possess  it,  without  great  difficulty.  In  the  normal  school, 
the  natural-science  foundation  must  be  made  so  complete  that  it 
would  not  require  great  sacrifice,  in  order  to  add  knowledge  of  this 
particular  subject,  and  the  questions  of  method  should  be  easily 
answered  by  a  teacher  who  is  well  grounded  in  pedagogic  method. 
It  must  be  said,  however,  that  the  teacher  must  have  tact  as  well 
as  knowledge.  Personality  counts  for  much.  If  the  teacher  can- 
not handle  the  matter  without  embarrassment  before  his  pupils, 
he  would  better  leave  it  alone.  Enderlin  insists  that  instruction, 
if  it  is  not  to  fail  in  its  purpose,  must  not  be  confined  to  the  sexual 
life  of  man,  but  must  be  treated  in  connection  with  the  facts  of  the 
renewal  of  organic  life  in  general,  and  must  be  conceived  as  a 
special  case  in  the  great  study  of  sexual  activities  and  unfolding  of 
powers,  and  therefore  the  sexual  material  will  be  divided  in  all  of 
the  annual  courses  of  botanical,  zoological,  and  anthropological 
instruction,  and  thus  become  merely  a  factor  in  the  chain  of  bio- 
logical phenomena,  by  which  the  maintenance,  the  rise,  and  the 
increase  of  life  is  regulated.  Great  care  must  be  exercised  to  give 
information  only  as  the  child's  mind  is  prepared  for  it.  He  insists 
that  a  sense  of  responsibility  should  be  awakened,  and  the  physical 
consequences  of  irritation  of  the  parts  be  pointed  out  in  connection 
with  hygienic  instruction.  He  urges  that,  in  order  to  avoid  too 
prolonged  sitting,  many  forms  of  instruction  can  be  given  more 
actively  and  in  the  open  air,  in  the  school  gardens,  or  in  walks  in 
the  country.  He  sets  a  high  value  upon  experimental  work  in 
physics  and  chemistry.  He  thinks  that  it  is  well  to  emphasize 
active  effort  on  the  part  of  the  pupil  much  more  than  is  now  done ; 
that  the  passive  attitude  toward  books  is  injurious  to  the  child. 
He  criticizes  the  German  custom  of  giving  out  lessons  to  be  learned 
at  home,  and  insists  on  the  high  value  of  play  and  sport. 

CONCLUSIONS  OF  K.  HOLLER  ON  "tHE  DUTY  OF  THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOL."^ 

Youth  must  be  instructed  in  respect  to  sexual  matters,  because, 

(o)   Sexuality  is  one  of  the  sides  of  human  nature  which  so  strongly 

influences    development    that    a    clear    knowledge    of    these    relations    is    a 

necessary  part  of  all  general  education. 

*  Cf.  Konrad  Holler,  Die  sexuelle  Frage  unci  die  Schule,  Leipzig,  Nagele, 
1907.  On  pp.  45-54  he  gives  a  programme  of  biological  studies  for  the  fourth 
to  the  eighth  school  years,  so  far  as  sex  instruction  is  concerned. 


APPENDIX  65 

(fr)  Because  it  is  impossible  to  keep  youth  up  to  the  end  of  school 
years  in  ignorance  of  sexual  affairs. 

(c)  Because,  only  by  means  of  better  language  in  respect  to  sexual 
matters  can  this  be  exalted  above  the  plane  of  impure  methods  of  thinking 
and  speaking. 

(d)  Because  it  is  the  duty  of  education  to  send  forth  young  people 
instructed  in  the  physical  and  social  dangers  of  the  sex  life. 

2.  The  duty  of  the  school  is  therefore : 

(o)  Not  to  carry  on  a  contest  with  venereal  diseases,  and 
(&)  Not  to  heal  the  pupils  who  are  sexually  perverted;  but 

(c)  To  lift  up  the  sexual  field  into  the  kingdom  of  the  natural,  and 
therefore  of  the  unprejudiced  and  self-evident. 

(d)  The  immunization,  by  instruction  and  physical  hardening,  against 
sexual  perversion. 

(e)  The  furnishing  of  natural,  scientific  foundations  for  later  instruc- 
tion, in  respect  to  the  natural  use  and  in  respect  to  the  dangers  to  health  and 
to  social  morality  of  the  misuse  of  the  sexual  powers. 

3.  The  hygienic  instruction  of  girls  is  to  be  given  at  the  end  of  the 
public-school  course,  and  to  boys  at  the  end  of  the  continuation-school 
period. 

4.  The  handling  of  sexual  matters  is  to  be  left  to  the  instruction  in 
biology.  The  ethical  side  of  the  question  can  be  treated  in  medical  and 
religious  instruction. 

5.  Sexual  instruction  includes  three  divisions :  preparation  for  offspring, 
fertilization  and  development  of  the  germ,  birth  and  rearing  of  young. 
The  division  of  the  material  at  the  different  stages  and  their  arrangement 
in  the  studies  of  natural  history  must  be  made  according  to  the  time  at  the 
disposal  of  the  particular  schools  and  the  mental  condition  of  the  pupils. 

6.  We  must  see  to  it  that  sexual  instruction  is  put  into  the  courses  of 
preparation  of  teachers. 

VIEWS  OF  MR.  KEMSIES' 

1.  The  sexual  instruction  of  youth  is  necessary  in  order  to  educate  the 
race  to  avoid  successfully  the  dangers  of  sexual  perversion  and  excess. 

2.  Sexual  instruction  can  be  made  the  common  property  of  youth  only 
by  means  of  the  school. 

3.  The  task  of  the  school  is  to  be  limited  only  by  considerations  of 
prudence  and  regard  for  public  opinion,  so  that  we  may  not  destroy  the 
whole  work  by  extreme  demands. 

4.  All  explanations  in  respect  to  venereal  diseases  are  to  be  deferred  to 
the  period  when  the  youth  leaves  school. 

5.  The  duty  of  the  middle  school  should  be  to  communicate  to  grow- 
'  Op.  cit.,  p.  103. 


66  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

ing  youth  a  natural  and  therefore  a  sound  view  of  human  reproduction  and 
to  protect  the  imaginative  mind  from  precocious  and  unnatural  vice.  The 
probability  that  boys  and  girls  will  more  and  more  be  educated  together 
speaks  for  the  limitation  of  the  task  of  the  middle  schools. 

6.  How  can  the  middle  schools  communicate  to  growing  youth  a  natural 
and  therefore  a  sound  view  of  the  reproduction  of  human  beings? 

(a)  A  properly  arranged  plan  of  instruction  in  nature-study  cannot  pass 
over  the  reproduction  and  development  of  man. 

(&)  In  the  explanation  of  the  analogies  in  the  reproduction  of  all 
species  thorough  work  can  especially  be  done  in  botany  and  in  the  study 
of  the  lower  animals. 

(f)  In  the  consideration  of  sexual  matters  of  human  beings  we  can 
take  into  account  the  fact  that  pupils  who  have  been  properly  prepared  by 
treatment  of  plants  and  animals  can  independently  draw  many  inferences 
without  the  necessity  of  going  too  much  into  details. 

(rf)  A  minimum  of  what  is  to  be  communicated  may  be  established 
beyond  which  especially  capable  and  tactful  teachers  may  independently  go. 

{e)  Nature-study,  with  reference  to  sexual  information,  can  be  con- 
tinued to  the  fifth  school  year. 

7.  How  can  the  middle  schools  otherwise  prepare  youth  for  life  and 
protect  them  from  precocious  and  unnatural  excess? 

(w)  The  teachers  of  the  different  studies  must  discuss  the  multi- 
farious cases  where  sex  is  touched  in  a  natural  way.  We  must  emphatically 
protest  against  the  skipping  over  of  questions  in  school  books  where  this 
matter  is  glimpsed. 

(&)  Opportunities  are  offered  by  German  studies  and  by  history,  where 
we  can  treat  the  matter  from  the  standpoint  of  art  in  a  more  fundamental 
manner. 

(c)When  the  maintenance  of  a  school  library  has  added  moral  and 
unquestionable  reading  to  the  circle  of  ideas  of  the  pupils,  we  must  strug- 
gle against  obscene  literature. 

(rf)  Young  people  should  be  urged  to  take  part  in  all  kinds  of  sport. 

{e)  Scientific  information  alone  cannot  protect  from  sexual  error  and 
a  special  emphasis  must  be  laid  upon  education  to  self  control  and  a  sense 
of  duty. 

THE  VIEWS   OF   MR.    KOESTER  OF   HAMBURG* 

I.  It  is  necessary  that  the  growing  youth  should  be  instructed  in  relation 
to  sexual  matters.  In  this  field,  where  the  house  and  the  school  fail, 
an  instructive  book  renders  good  service. 

*  The  Question  of  th?  Reading  of  Yo^th  in  Respect  to  Sesfual  Instruction, 
p.  114. 


APPENDIX  67 

2.  Fiction  is  not  adapted  to  instruction  in  these  matters.  Its  field  is 
psychological.  It  gives  an  introduction  to  the  world  of  human  feelings 
and  especially  to  those  of  love. 

3.  Here  the  principle  holds  that  children  may  read  and  hear  all  that  is 
justly  presented  and  which  does  not  surpass  their  comprehension. 

4.  The  reading  of  young  children  should  not  exclude  every  expression 
which  relates  to  sexual  affairs,  as  carrying  and  bearing  of  children  and 
the  like. 

5.  It  is  altogether  false  to  keep  from  the  growing  youth  all  novels 
which  handle  the  subject  of  love.  On  the  contrary,  youth  must  learn  to 
know  love  and  love  stories  which  have  a  literary  value,  in  order  to  guide 
the  awakening  feelings  on  the  right  path.  The  ordinary  sensational  stories, 
with  their  sentimentally  extravagant  feelings,  are  very  injurious. 

THE  VIEWS  OF  DR.  VON  STEINEN  " 
The  plan  of  education  of  the  higher  schools  has  hitherto  considered  the 
life  of  sex  as  something  not  to  be  touched,  and  has  neglected  to  give  to  the 
pupils,  even  after  they  have  entered  the  age  of  puberty,  a  legitimate 
instruction  in  respect  to  the  questions  which  are  so  vital  to  them.  This 
method  seems  to  us  to  be  injurious.  Almost  all  young  people  satisfy  their 
desire  for  knowledge  at  unclean  sources,  and  in  that  way  their  imagina- 
tion on  these  things  is  poisoned  with  a  hateful  touch  of  secrecy,  of  the 
piquant,  and  even  of  the  coarse.  By  suggestion  and  example,  many  among 
them,  by  compelling  power,  are  led  to  self-abuse  or  to  precocious  satisfac- 
tion of  sexual  desires  with  prostitutes,  from  which  diseases  arise.  It  is 
urged  that  persons  leaving  school,  and  still  under  the  authority  of  the 
school,  should  be  instructed  in  regard  to  sex  hygiene  by  suitable  medical 
men  in  lectures.  Such  lectures  are  necessary:  (a)  In  the  interest  of 
general  education,  for  which  the  examination  of  high-school  pupils 
should  be  a  guarantee.  Without  knowledge  of  the  physiology  of  repro- 
duction, a  profound  view  of  the  life  of  the  world  cannot  be  gained. 
The  development  of  the  life  in  family  and  state  depends  upon  such 
knowledge,  {b)  In  the  interest  of  the  health  of  the  graduates.  Accord- 
ing to  Blaschko's  statistics,  no  group  of  the  population  is  so  affected  by 
venereal  diseases  as  the  students  of  the  universities.  In  Berlin,  as  high 
as  25  per  cent,  have  venereal  diseases.  Very  many  young  people  are 
deceived  and  strengthened  in  their  belief  by  base  suggestions  that  emission 
makes  sexual  intercourse  a  hygienic  duty,  and  therefore  they  come,  because 
their  proper  counselors  withhold  information,  to  the  house  of  ill  fame,  lose 
the    charm    of    their    sexual    purity,    and    draw    diseases    upon    themselves. 

^Lectures  before  Graduates  of  Higher  Classes,  pp.  135-38, 


68  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

{c)  The  state  has  a  powerful  interest  in  having  those  who  go  from  the 
higher  schools,  the  ministers,  the  judges,  the  teachers,  and  the  medical  men 
sexually  sound  and  ready  to  influence,  by  their  example,  the  wide  circles 
of  society  with  a  high  conception  of  family  life. 

In  fact,  such  lectures  to  graduates  of  high  schools  as  have  been  given 
in  years  past  in  Dijsseldorf,  Frankfurt,  Elberfeld-Barmen,  Braunschweig, 
Gladbach,  and  elsewhere,  have  been  given  without  any  difficulty  arising, 
and  leaving  a  remarkably  good  impression  on  all  who  participated.  The 
scholars  voluntarily  attended  and  preserved  a  proper  attitude  to  the  sub- 
jects, and  found  the  instruction  entirely  natural.  The  parents  expressed 
entire  satisfaction.  The  school  directors  and  the  teachers,  particularly 
the  religious  teachers  of  different  confessions,  who  attended  the  lectures, 
expressed  their  great  satisfaction  in  respect  to  the  effect,  and  the  wish  that 
such  lectures  should  become  a  permanent  arrangement. 

A.  The  principal  value  is  in  the  scientific  representation  of  the  phy- 
siology of  reproduction.  The  organs  of  reproduction  are  explained,  as  to 
their  structure,  by  means  of  schematic  drawings.  Their  products,  the  cell, 
and  the  egg,  and  the  fertilization  of  the  egg,  with  the  wonderful  process 
of  mitosis,  afford  very  welcome  material.  Conception,  the  carrying  of 
young,  and  birth  may  decently  be  discussed  in  scientific  form  without 
difficulty.  The  personal  moral  responsibility  of  the  individual  in  respect  to 
sexual  intercourse  is  understood  of  itself  from  the  presentation.  The 
paternal  and  the  maternal  cells,  quantitatively  alike,  have  worked  together 
to  produce  a  new  organism,  which  now,  according  to  the  methods  of 
division,  in  respect  to  its  smallest  elements,  continues  under  the  successive 
influence  of  each  germ  cell.  The  individual  man  is  a  member  of  a  chain. 
On  his  conduct  depends  the  weal  or  woe  of  succeeding  members  of  society. 
Alcohol  and  syphilis  debase  the  germ.  Wholesome  conduct  and  sexual 
purity  improve  it.  The  sex  impulse  has  its  proper  and  natural  end  only 
in  the  principle  of  reproduction.  According  to  this  standpoint,  the  edu- 
cated man  will  learn  to  control  himself.  For  a  man  of  our  culture  period, 
the  normal  form  of  sexual  intercourse  is  monogamy.  By  that  means, 
family  education  is  guaranteed  to  the  child.  Single  union  with  the  woman 
of  one's  choice  is  the  ideal.  The  sexual  impulse  which  impels  to  this  end 
keeps  alive  the  highest  physical  and  spiritual  forces.  In  the  temporary 
repression  of  merely  sensual  impulses  is  the  highest  form  of  exercising 
self-control.  The  omission  of  satisfaction  of  sex  is  not  injurious  to  the 
health  of  a  sound  man.  Emissions  with  dreams  are  the  normal  and  safe 
release  of  the  collected  material  of  reproduction. 

Unnatural  satisfaction  of  sex,  that  is  self-abuse  and  purchased  satis- 
faction with  conscious  suppression  of  the  reproductive  principle  in  the 
house  of  ill-fame,  leads  to  serious  injury  of  health. 


APPENDIX  69 

There  follows  a  moderate  and  short  description  of  the  exhaustion  of 
the  nerves  in  self-abuse,  as  well  as  in  venereal  diseases.  The  individtial, 
therefore,  must  learn  to  hold  the  urgent  sexual  impulses  under  control  by 
hygienic  measures.  In  this  connection  some  brief  but  powerful  medical 
counsels  are  given,  with  respect  to  the  exercises  of  the  will,  the  water  cure, 
abstinence  from  alcohol,  the  surrounding  interests,  etc. 

B.  Great  importance  must  be  attached  to  good  preparation  and  a  care- 
fully selected  form.  The  lecture  is  the  first  one  which  the  graduate  is  to 
hear.  The  parents  should  have  their  attention  called  by  a  circular  to  the 
significance  of  the  lecture,  and  it  should  be  left  to  them  whether  they  will 
send  their  sons  or  not.  The  lecture  takes  place  in  a  hall.  When  several 
high  schools  are  in  a  city,  it  is  well  to  unite  the  graduates  of  all  at  such 
a  lecture.  It  is  natural  to  have  the  directors  and  some  teachers  present. 
The  presence  of  the  fathers  is  not  essential.  The  best  time  is  that  between 
the  written  examinations  and  graduation.  Only  physicians,  and  never  a 
minister  or  a  teacher,  should  give  this  lecture.  The  hygienic  principle 
must  be  the  controlling  one.  The  physician  understands  this  material  com- 
pletely and  he  is  accustomed  to  handle  it  in  a  natural  and  unembarrassed 
way.  These  lectures  are  to  be  recommended  to  all  friends  of  the  move- 
ment 

CONCLUSIONS  OF  DR.  W.  FUERSTENHEIM   OF  BERLIN* 

1.  The  sexual  instruction  of  graduates  comes  too  late. 

2.  Sexual  instruction,  even  for  the  lower  classes,  should  be  given. 

3.  This  instruction  must  be  prepared  through  nature-study  in  relation  to 
reproduction  and  its  organs  in  animals  and  plants. 

4.  This  instruction  should  be  given  by  a  physician,  where  possible,  in 
the  general  course  on  health. 

5.  This  instruction,  after  a  short  physiological  and  anatomical  intro- 
duction, should  refer  to  the  dangers  which  the  sex  life  brings  with  it : 
(o)  Of  excessive,  improper,  and  precocious  use  of  the  organs,  and  (b)  of 
venereal  diseases. 

6.  This  instruction  should  warn  against  foolish  prejudices,  as  (a)  that 
self-control  is  unmanly;  (6)  that  the  power  of  reproduction  is  lost  by  not 
using  the  organs;    (c)  that  continence  is  otherwise  injurious  to  health. 

7.  This  instruction  must  protect  modesty,  and  so  must  avoid :  (a) 
detailed  description  of  the  sexual  act;  (&)  detailed  description  of  preven- 
tive methods,  and   (c)  commerce  with  prostitutes. 

8.  This  instruction  must  guard  against  extravagance,  as :  (a)  from 
any  artificial  idealization  of  sexual  intercourse,  or  (b)  any  extravagance  in 
respect  to  injurious  consequences. 

•  Op.  cit. 


70  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

9.  This  instruction  should  recommend  continence;  and  special  medical 
advice  should  be  obtained  before  the  beginning  of  the  course,  and  immedi- 
ately where  venereal  disease  is  suspected. 

10.  This  instruction  should  work:  (o)  upon  the  will  by  reference  to  the 
danger  to  the  young  mother,  to  the  destiny  of  the  child,  to  the  teachings 
of  history  in  respect  to  the  value  of  continence  in  relation  to  the  welfare 
of  the  state,  and  the  value  of  self-control  in  respect  to  one's  own  person 
and  his  posterity;  and  (&)  to  the  strengthening  of  the  will  by  these  means: 
hardening  the  system,  physical  and  psychical ;  so  called  gymnastics  of  the 
feelings;  diversion,  that  is,  busying  oneself  with  earnest  matters  and  the 
development  of  one's  own  interests;  exertion,  spiritual  work,  sport,  play, 
and  gymnastics,  and  avoidance  of  dangerous  influences,  alcohol,  vicious 
society,  and  reading.  This  instruction  should  form  a  part  of  the  general 
course  of  instruction.  The  conclusion  furnishes  an  introduction  to  sexual 
instruction  of  the  younger  members  of  high  schools.  In  the  instruction  of 
youth  it  is  desirable,  first,  to  warn  against  the  fear  of  chastity.  There  is 
a  widespread  superstition  that  precocious  intercourse  is  favorable  to  the 
development  of  the  sex  organs.  The  organs  are  developed  and  maintained 
without  our  interference.  Precocious  demands  upon  them  interfere  with 
this  development,  and  lead  to  precocious  exhaustion.  Diseases  of  con- 
tinence are  unknown.  Complete  sexual  maturity,  in  our  race,  comes  some- 
what late;  (r)  by  warning  against  the  false  impression  concerning  emis- 
sions. Such  appearances  are  no  cause  for  anxiety.  They  are  signs  of  a 
beginning  but  not  of  a  complete  sexual  maturity.  They  are  not  a  signal 
that  one  must  go  to  a  woman,  but  rather  a  natural  vent,  so  that  one  does 
not  need  this.  Over-excitation  of  the  organs  in  a  mechanical  way  or  by 
imagination  is  to  be  avoided.  It  leads  to  exaggeration  of  impulse  and 
weakening  of  the  power  to  withstand,  to  excessive  loss  of  semen,  to  con- 
ditions of  exhaustion,  and  so  to  nervousness,  and  unfitness  for  earnest 
work;  {d)  by  warnings  against  lack  of  independence  and  curiosity.  Not 
an  irresistible  impulse,  but  curiosity,  sometimes  the  loss  of  will  force  on 
one  side  and  temptation  on  the  other,  leads  to  precocious  sexual  intercourse. 
To  the  temptation,  as  to  the  scorn  and  ridicule  of  foolish  friends,  we  must 
oppose  a  manly  and  earnest  opposition,  which  is  based  on  an  insight  into 
the  consequences  of  one's  own  conduct,  and  therefore  a  fundamental  princi- 
ple must  be  developed. 

In  the  second  place,  (a)  in  respect  to  the  advantages  of  continence : 
this  is  easiest  when  the  necessity  is  known  in  time,  and  the  gymnastics  of 
the  feelings  is  earnestly  carried  out.  It  is  promoted  by  sport,  temperance, 
and  earnest  work.  It  gives  men  health,  freshness,  inner  repose,  and  out- 
ward security.    Think  of  the  civil  importance  of  self-control,  the  fate  of  the 


APPENDIX  71 

old  empires;  (&)  responsibility  in  respect  to  the  girl;  the  unhappy  position 
of  the  unmarried  young  mother  in  her  family  and  in  society;  the  duty  of 
support ;  the  fate  of  the  unmarried,  according  to  recent  investigations ; 
mortality;  criminality;  (c)  the  danger  of  venereal  diseases;  their  extra- 
ordinary diffusion ;  short  representation  of  the  kinds  of  diseases ;  danger 
to  the  central  nervous  system :  to  other  persons  through  further  infection ; 
to  the  offspring  through  inheritance.  Preventive  measures  are  often  good, 
but  are  in  the  highest  degree  inadequate.  Cleanliness  is  also  here  the 
principal  thing.  It  is  urgently  recommended  that  before  one  has  sexual 
intercourse  he  should  take  medical  counsel.  In  case  of  sickness,  a  false 
modesty  is  out  of  place.  Dangers  of  alcohol.  A  great  part  of  infection 
occurs  in  drunkenness. 

In  the  third  place,  the  things  to  be  avoided  are:  (a)  the  description  of 
the  sex  organs  and  the  sexual  act  which  goes  into  details;  (&)  the  details 
of  prostitution;   (c)  the  representation  of  preventive  means. 

CONCLUSIONS  OF  FRAU  PROF.  E.   KRUKENBERG  ^ 
THE  DUTY  OF  THE   MOTHER  AND  OF  THE  HOME 

1.  Special  instruction  is  not  necessary,  where  we  have  in  the  home 
fathers  and  mothers  who  have  sound  and  pure  perceptions,  and  who  tell, 
whenever  they  have  the  opportunity,  the  truth  to  their  children,  at  the  right 
time  and  in  a  suitable  form, 

2.  The  purpose  of  instruction  must  be  to  educate  such  fathers  and 
mothers,  so  that  instruction  from  other  directions  may  become  more  and 
more  superfluous. 

3.  The  home  has  an  advantage  over  the  school  in  the  following  respects. 
It  can  introduce  instruction  imperceptibly,  and  on  occasion ;  it  can  fit  the 
instruction  to  the  individual  child,  according  to  its  stage  of  development; 
and  it  can,  in  advance,  avert  false  representations. 

4.  The  home  destroys  the  work  of  the  school,  very  often,  through  a 
prudish,  unnatural  secrecy,  or  through  frivolous  laughter  and  remarks  of 
double  meaning,  in  respect  to  that  which  the  child  learns  in  school. 

5.  The  aim  of  instruction  is  often  perverted.  Fanatics  for  instruction 
very  frequently  discuss  sexual  matters  too  much,  and  with  too  much 
emphasis.  Prolonged  discussion  of  the  matter,  as  shown  in  many  books 
of  instruction,  is  to  be  avoided.  Short,  clear  answers  are  generally  suffi- 
cient. Too  prolonged  questioning  in  youth  is  to  be  avoided  by  impercepti- 
ble transition  to  other  themes  of  speech.  If  there  is  continued  inquiry, 
then  the  answer  must  be  faithful  to  the  truth,  but  always  brief,  and  as  some- 
thing natural  and  self-evident. 

.6.  The  vice  of  self-abuse,  without  mentioning  its  name,  must  be  pre- 
'  Op.  cit.,  pp.  27-29. 


72  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

vented  before  school  life  begins:  (o)  through  observation  of  the  child  by 
the  mother;  (fc)  by  proper  position  in  sleep;  (c)  through  warning  of  danger 
to   health ;    (rf)    through    warning   against    perversion    by    school    comrades. 

7.  Before  the  parental  home  is  left,  young  men  should  be  instructed  in 
respect  to  the  dangers  of  sexual  intercourse,  outside  of  marriage.  Better 
than  a  personal  interview,  in  many  cases,  is  a  pamphlet  or  a  book.  A  brief 
appeal  to  the  feeling  of  honor,  and  a  sense  of  responsibility  in  respect  to 
the  bride  and  children  of  the  future,  should  be  urged  personally. 

8.  Girls,  who  go  out  to  wage-earning  work  must  be  warned,  perhaps 
through  a  pamphlet. 

9.  Young  girls,  who  remain  at  home,  do  not  need  detailed  instruction 
in  respect  to  venereal  diseases,  prostitution,  and  the  like.  For  them,  it  is 
sufficient:  (a)  to  declare  menstruation  is  a  necessary  phenomenon,  in  order 
to  secure  material  which  is  necessary  for  the  formation  of  a  new  living 
being;  (&)  to  describe  a  marriage  for  money,  or  support,  as  a  sin 
against  nature,  and  as  a  degradation  for  all  life;  (c)  to  teach  them  that 
to  abandon  themselves  to  men  before  marriage  is  the  cause  of  many  diseases 
to  women  and  children;  (d)  to  insist  that  they  must  regard  health  and 
purity  for  their  own  sake,  and  for  their  future  children,  as  a  duty,  or,  in 
case  they  do  not  marry,  that  they  may  be  sound  and  efficient  for  a  calling. 
This  latter  suggestion  may  help  them,  when  they  have  no  prospect  of  mar- 
riage, which  unfortunately,  under  existing  conditions,  is  not  always  possible. 

10.  Instruction  at  home  does  not  demand  much  time,  but  only  a  whole- 
some, pure  apprehension,  on  the  part  of  the  parents,  and  a  bond  of  mutual 
relation  between  mother  and  child.  Both  of  these  we  find  in  the  simple 
conditions  of  life,  especially  in  the  country. 

A  CONSERVATIVE  VIEW  BY  DR.  F.  W.  FORSTER  (ZURICH )^ 
It  is  the  so-called  old  ethics,  that  view  of  the  sex  life,  which  has  always 
been  represented  by  all  the  deeper  religion  and  philosophy,  and  which  has 
expressed  itself  outwardly  in  the  absolute  prohibition  of  all  extramarital 
sexual  connections.  This  prohibition  is  only  a  symbol  of  the  underlying 
conception  that  the  sexual  appetite  is  not  to  have  its  own  way,  but  should 
be  ruled  strictly  by  the  total  system  of  life. 

Forster  sums  up  his  conclusions  thus:* 

I.  By  sexual  pedagogics  we  are  to  understand  that  education  and  instruc- 
tion by  which  youth  is  enabled  to  subordinate  the  sexual  life  to  the  demands 
and  needs  which  spring  from  hygiene,  social  responsibility,  and  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man. 

'  Sexualpddagogik,  D.  G.  B.  G.,    1907,  PP.  214  ft. 

"  Leitsatse,  pp.  242-49. 


APPENDIX  73 

2.  This  pedagogical  activity  has  to  keep  in  mind  these  two  starting-points : 
(a)  intellectual  enlightenment  in  respect  to  the  facts,  dangers,  and  responsi- 
bilities of  the  sexual  life.  It  is  a  demand  which  cannot  be  set  aside  that  in 
the  place  of  the  ever  more  cynical  and  merely  sensual  information  of  the 
street  should  be  introduced  the  pedogogical  and  hygienic  instruction  of  teacher 
and  physician.  This  instruction  can  handle  the  physiological  basis  of  the 
sex  life  in  connection  with  studies  of  plants  and  animals,  but  it  should 
precisely  in  this  field  distinguish  sharply  between  animals  and  man,  and 
take  pains  to  show  clearly  that  in  the  lower  planes  of  life  the  instincts  of 
sexual  functions  give  the  order  and  rule,  while  in  human  beings  the  spirit 
and  conscience  are  destined  to  assume  control,  the  animal  is  subject  to  the 
impulse  of  propagation,  while  the  impulse  of  propagation  should  be  the  ser- 
vant of  man;  (5)  the  education  of  the  life  of  feeling — awakening  of  care 
for  others,  charity,  sympathy,  and  sense  of  responsibility — not  only  by 
instruction  but  especially  by  practice  in  home  and  school.  Important  as 
intellectual  instruction  is,  it  is  helpless  without  the  support  of  all  the  higher 
powers  of  the  soul ;  precisely  because  the  sexual  impulses  are  so  strong,  the 
:orrective  effort  must  be  exerted  through  the  emotional  and  motor  centers. 
Sexual  impulses  must  come  under  the  control  of  social  feelings,  of  devotion, 
chivalry,  and  charity,  and  then  only  will  they  be  deprived  of  their  blind 
natural  power  and  be  set  in  place  with  the  higher  requirements  of  social 
culture;  (c)  education  of  the  imagination.  It  is  well  known  that  sensuality 
stains  its  greatest  motive  force  when  fancy  stimulates  it.  Therefore  it  is  a 
vital  requirement  of  sexual  pedagogics,  from  the  beginning  to  fill  the 
imagination  with  living  pictures  out  of  the  higher  ideal  world  of  humanity 
and  so  to  draw  away  phantasy  from  the  service  of  sense.  Art  education 
and  religious  influence  have  here  their  unique  task.  It  is  also  important 
to  call  the  attention  of  young  people  directly  to  the  hygiene  and  dietetics  of 
the  phantasy  in  relation  to  sex;  {d)  education  of  the  will.  Here  arises  the 
most  important  task  of  sexual  education.  Neither  ethical  nor  hygienic  in- 
struction gains  a  proper  influence  in  conduct,  when  the  will  has  not  power 
to  remain  true  to  the  higher  ideals  in  presence  of  impulses  and  illusions. 
How  many  invalids  perish  because,  in  spite  of  clear  knowledge,  they  have 
not  the  will  force  to  carry  out  any  form  of  cure !  Therefore  the  culture 
and  exercise  of  the  will  must  stand  in  the  foreground  of  all  sexual  peda- 
gogics. We  can  utilize  the  life  of  appetite  for  food  and  the  tendencies  to 
laziness,  narrowness,  anger,  and  impatience  in  order  to  train  youth  to 
subordinate  body  to  spirit.  The  will  requires  education !  Gymnastics,  trade 
practice,  household  work  have  a  value  in  sexual  pedagogics  because  they 
exercise  the  child  and  youth  in  spiritual  control  over  physical  actions. 

3.  Sexual  pedagogics  may  not  be  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  life  of 


74  THE  EIGHTH   YEARBOOK 

youth.  If  it  is  so  isolated  there  is  danger  of  concentrating  too  much 
attention  on  the  sexual  sphere  Weakness  of  will,  degradation  of  phantasy, 
and  abandonment  of  thought  in  this  field  can  be  corrected  only  by  giving  to 
character-building  a  place  above  intellectual  cramming  in  the  whole  life  of 
school  and  home.  It  is  not  desirable  nor  necessary  to  go  into  much  detail 
in  instruction  about  sexual  matters ;  it  is  sufficient  to  show  that  certain 
general,  well-established  convictions  and  modes  of  thinking,  feeling,  and 
willing  must  be  set  up  against  this  sphere  and  thus  find  their  severest  test. 

Forster  quotes  Pestalozzi's  Lienhard  und  Gertrud,  where  the 
reformer  Amer  is  described : 

Amer  based  his  legislation  against  the  perversities  of  the  sexual  impulse, 
from  flirtation  to  child  murder,  on  this  foundation :  before  this  appetite 
awakes  be  prepared  against  its  assaults  by  exercise  in  thoughtfulness  and 
order.  When  the  sexual  impulse  arose  it  found  the  house  civilly  washed 
and  adorned  and  the  master  of  the  house  had  power  to  accustom  the  bad 
spirit  to  the  pure  order  which  ruled  the  house,  and  at  any  time  when  it 
raged  to  lay  a  chain  on  it. 

The  position  of  Forster  was  regarded  as  somewhat  extreme, 
austere,  and  impracticable  by  some  members  of  this  German  con- 
gress ;  it  seemed  to  some  of  the  physicians  a  Httle  visionary  and 
not  to  give  a  large  enough  place  to  direct,  explicit,  and  detailed 
anatomical,  physiological,  and  hygienic  instruction.  So  Dr.  med. 
Julian  Marcuse  (Ebenhausen-Miinchen)   said  openly   (p.  263)  : 

This  discussion  before  this  congress  has  been  about  the  questions  of  how, 
where,  and  who.  Dr.  Forster  has  undertaken  to  throw  overboard  all  the 
results  yet  reached  and  in  their  place  to  set  religious  education  and  the 
religious  factor.  Instruction  in  his  view  has  only  a  limited  place,  only  the 
development  of  plants  and  animals  will  he  teach,  but  when  it  comes  to  man 
he  would  omit  every  sort  of  mention  of  even  the  most  natural  and  element- 
ary facts.  He  would  refuse  all  utilization  of  scientific  knowledge,  the  results 
of  investigation  and  discovery,  all  real  relations. 

VIEWS    OF    DR.    MED.    MARTIN    CHOTZEN     (BRESLAU)^" 

Dr.  Chotzen  mentions  several  plans :  one,  a  course  of  lectures 
by  a  physician  at  meetings  of  teachers  with  voluntary  attendance, 
illustrated  with  wall  drawings,  with  opportunity  for  written  ques- 

"  Sexualpddagogik,  D,  G.  B.  G.,  pp.  300  ff. 


APPENDIX  75 

tions  at  the  close,  not  signed  by  the  questioner.     He  gives  his 
syllabus  of  seven  lectures  (two  each  week)  : 

I.  Purpose  of  this  series  of  lectures. 

I.  Introduction  to  the  study  of  sexual  hygiene  with  the  object: 
a)  the   knowledge   of   those    factors   in   which  the   influence   of   the 
teacher  may  make  itself  felt; 

6)    the  explanation  of  the  importance  of  the  sex  question   for  the 
school,  the  family,  and  the  state; 

c)  further  use  of  the  appropriate  literature  in  independent  study; 
2.  Development,  structure,  and  function  of  the  male  and  female  organs 
of  sex. 

II.  Description  of  the  phenomena  of  puberty  and  the  attending  facts. 
Rise  of  the  sexual  appetite. 

III.  Control  of  impulses.     Pathological  manifestations. 

IV.  Influence  of  education  on  control  of  impulses  and  their  pathologicaJ 
manifestations. 

V.  Impulse  of  sex  and  of  propagation.  The  moral  and  economical  signifi- 
cance of  marriage  for  the  individual.  Error  of  the  hygienic  necessity 
for  pre-marital  sexual  intercourse.  Error  of  the  "right  to  mother- 
hood." 

VI.  Moral  and  economic  importance  of  marriage  for  the  state.  The  Mal- 
thusian  anxiety  about  over-population;  the  consequences  of  preven- 
tion of  conception. 

VII.  The  effect  of  sexual  diseases  on  the  sick  person,  on  his  surroundings, 
and  on  marriage.  The  bearings  of  public  and  secret  prostitution  in 
relation  to  public  health.  The  influence  of  education  on  the  conduct 
of  youth  and  adults  of  both  sexes  in  sexual  matters.  Education  to 
development  of  self-control  in  enjoyments — even  in  sexual  gratifica- 
tion, and  consciousness  of  responsibility;  knowledge  of  the  moral 
value  of  chastity  up  to  entrance  upon  marriage. 

He  sought  to  show  the  relations  of  the  reproductive  system  to 
the  entire  organism,  blood  vessels,  nerves,  and  to  show  that  the  sex 
impulse  is  innate,  which  like  any  other  innate  impulse  must  be 
guided  in  the  right  and  moral  path. 


SEX  INSTRUCTION  IN  SCHOOLS 


HELEN  C.  PUTNAM,  A.B.,  M.D. 

President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine  and  Chairman  of  Its  Standing 

Committee  on  the  Teaching  of  Hygiene 


FACTS  INDICATING  THE  NEED 

Social  Diseases  and  Marriage  by  Dr.  Prince  A.  Morrow  is  an 
authoritative,  scholarly,  readable  volume  that  should  be  in  the 
library  of  every  institution  training  teachers.  No  one  undertaking 
the  responsibility  of  preparing  children  for  citizenship,  whether  as 
parents  or  as  teachers,  is  justified  in  ignorance  of  the  facts  con- 
cerning the  prevalence  of  the  micro-organisms  of  Neisser  and  of 
Schaudinn,  and  the  appalling  results  to  wifehood  and  childhood — in 
the  last  analysis  to  modern  nations  as  to  ancient  ones. 

Less  expensive  summaries  of  facts,  causes,  prevention,  are  to  be 
found  in  educational  pamphlets  which  every  teacher  should  own, 
issued  by  the  American  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis, 
whose  membership  includes  leading  conservative  medical  authori- 
ties, biologists,  statesmen,  lawyers,  social  workers,  and  educators ; 
and  which,  co-operating  with  similar  scientific  bodies  in  Europe, 
undertakes  a  campaign  against  "the  great  black  plague"  not  less, 
but,  if  possible,  more  needed  than  that  against  "the  great  white 
plague,"  tuberculosis. 

The  increase  in  this  country  during  the  last  quarter-century  of 
these  devastating  diseases  is  unquestionably  due  to  ignorance  con- 
cerning them.  The  first  step  in  preventive  education  is  knowledge 
of  the  fact  that  unchastity  (illegal  sex  relations),  the  commonest 
means  of  infection,  occurring  in  from  40  to  90  per  cent,  of  males, 
renders  this  percentage  a  menace  to  the  family  and  society ;  that 
20  per  cent,  of  infections  occur  before  the  twentieth  year,  the 
largest  percentage  before  the  twenty-fifth  ;^  that  physical  and  mental 

^  This  paper,  prepared  for  this  Handbook,  represents  the  point  of  view  of  a 
high-minded  woman,  a  teacher,  and  an  eminent  physician. 
*  Cf.  Morrow. 

76 


SEX  INSTRUCTION  IN  SCHOOLS  77 

habits  in  childhood,  the  result  of  misinformation,  ignorance,  and 
thwarted  normal  interest  in  the  origin  of  life  lay  the  foundation  of 
future  sexual  errors ;  that  a  formidable  world-wide  trade  is  finan- 
cially engaged  in  promoting  vice,  which  can  be  destroyed  only  by 
popular  insistence;  that  it  is  a  companion  of  the  saloon  business; 
and  that  much  of  the  real  estate  occupied  by  brothels  and  saloons 
is  found  at  the  tax  assessor's  office  to  be  the  property  of  men  and 
women  high  in  spcial  consideration — again  the  question  of  "tainted 
money,"  to  be  solved  only  by  popular  education. 

PARENTS    AND    TEACHERS 

Which  class,  parents  or  teachers,  shall  educate  children  so  that 
present  practices,  with  resulting  widely  extended  invalidism,  mor- 
tality, childlessness,  and  degeneracy,  shall  be  checked  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  parenthood  rarely  confers  the  ability  to  train  twentieth- 
century  citizens;  a  very  large  part  of  recent  legislative  and  social 
endeavor  concerning  ignorance  and  idleness,  vice,  intemperance, 
and  child  labor  being  focused  on  parental  incapacity.  One  logical 
interpretation  of  parents'  omission  to  instruct  in  the  physiology  and 
hygiene  of  sex  is  that  they  connect  it  with  vulgar  ideas  and  embar- 
rassments, and  would  spare  their  children — a  creditable  motive, 
but  a  state  of  mind  tragically  wrong.  Such  parental  misinforma- 
tion passed  on  to  children  perpetuates  vice,  disease,  mistakes,  and 
sorrow  quite  as  often  as  does  ignoring  the  subject. 

We  have  courses  for  training  teachers,  not  parents.  The  edu- 
cators' problem  is  to  create  the  first  generation  of  fathers  and 
mothers  whose  understanding  of  elementary  laws  of  life  (biologic 
laws)  places  sex  information  on  a  scientific  plane,  simple  but  true, 
instead  of  the  plane  of  ignorant  traditions.  "One  must  know  what 
is  true  in  order  to  do  what  is  right."  Thereafter  school  instruction 
in  biologic  laws  will  not  be  questioned,  and  homes  will  co-operate. 
Such  parents,  like  the  few  already  informed,  will  understand  that 
the  child's  questions  about  sex  and  new  life,  almost  invariably  begin- 
ning before  four  years  of  age,  are  the  natural  and  fitting  opportuni- 
ties to  anticipate  future  misinformation  by  truthfully  responding  to 
the  temporary  interest  (so  long  as  satisfied  it  is  only  temporary), 
thus  inviting  him  to  the  same  source  for  information  next  time. 
Untruthfulness,  mystery,  prohibition,  embarrassment  alienate  confi- 
dence effectually. 


78  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

Society  needs  co-operation  by  schools  in  this  as  in  other  educa- 
tion for  which  an  earher  civilization  found  homes  sufficient.  The 
first  undertaking  must  be  preparation  of  teachers,  whose  informa- 
tion hitherto,  and  consequent  mental  attitude,  has  been  for  the  most 
part  no  better  than  that  of  parents. 

SCHOOL  ATTEMPTS 

From  conversations  with  a  large  number  of*  educators  while 
investigating  the  teaching  of  hygiene  in  twenty-five  of  our  most 
progressive  cities,  I  believe  it  well  within  the  truth  to  say  that  a 
majority,  after  a  few  years'  experience,  become  anxiously  alive  to 
the  need  for  sex  instruction  among  their  pupils,  but  are  handicapped 
by  popular  and  official  prejudices  and  by  personal  unpreparedness ; 
that  they  believe  nature-study  affords  normal  channels  for  the 
necessary  information;  while  some  see  that  domestic  science  (better 
called  "home-making")  properly  taught  also  offers  an  invaluable 
opportunity  for  constructive  work  with  both  boys  and  girls. 

A  few  instructors  in  nature-study  and  in  home-making  are 
demonstrating  the  possibilities.  A  study  of  their  methods  and 
results  is  worth  more  than  theorizing.  The  use  of  pamphlets  for 
private  reading,  personal  interviews,  lectures  by  physicians  and 
other  outsiders  I  found  so  unsatisfactory  to  educators  that  the 
reader  is  referred  to  fuller  discussion  of  these  methods.^  Parents' 
clubs  in  a  few  schools  were  useful  to  a  limited  degree  in  this  as  in 
other  lines  needing  home  co-operation. 

ILLUSTRATIVE  COURSES 

Where  sex  instruction  is  successfully  given  it  presents  four 
characteristics:  (a)  it  attacks  the  subject  indirectly  (so  far  as 
children  and  outsiders  know)  ;  (&)  it  is  constructive,  not  made  up 
of  negations;  teaching  about  good,  not  about  evil;  (c)  it  is  based 
on  natural  laws  universal  throughout  organic  life;  {d)  its  method 
is  invariably  the  "laboratory  method" — not  textbooks  and  memoriz- 
ing; {e)  the  teachers  are  "departmental,"  giving  the  chief  part  of 
their  time  to  elementary  science,  including  "domestic  science"  or 
"nature-study." 

^Bulletin  of  the  American  Academy  of  Medicine,  April,  1906;  Transactions 
of  the  American  Society  for  Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis,  Vol.  II,  Putnam, 


SEX  INSTRUCTION  IN  SCHOOLS 


79 


Assuming  that  nature-study  and  domestic  science,  already  widely 
introduced,  have  come  to  stay,  we  note  that  sex  instruction  adds  no 
new  branch ;  rather,  it  co-ordinates  details  with  this  social  need, 

A  course  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades. — The  instructor  had 
supplemented  her  normal  training  with  special  study  of  physics, 
chemistry,  and  biology  at  Chicago  and  Cornell  universities.  The 
material  was  magnifying  glasses,  school  garden,  living  specimens  in 
schoolroom,  excursions. 

With  the  seventh  grade  she  began  a  "continued  story,"  "The 
story  of  the  world  we  live  in,"  during  one  hour  once  or  twice 
weekly.  The  first  hour  was  given  to  attractive  chemical  experi- 
ments illustrating  gases,  vapors  ("chaos"),  condensation  into  solids, 
cooling,  some  of  the  properties  of  water,  light,  and  heat. 

This  year's  work  was  then  led  from  the  simplest  forms  of  plant 
life  to  the  complex  with  the  motto  frequently  repeated :  "The  two 
objects  of  every  living  thing  are  to  perfect  itself  and  to  reproduce 
itself."  For  every  plant  these  two  objects  were  the  lines  of  study. 
Very  early  the  terms  "mother  plant"  and  "father  plant"  were  intro- 
duced, with  allied  terms  in  plant  and  animal  "families."  Repro- 
duction in  yeast  cells,  spirogyra  and  vaucheria,  and  in  higher  plant 
forms  by  spores,  seeds,  pollenation,  were  seen  and  drawn  by  the 
children.  Equal  attention  was  given  to  other  details,  reproduction 
being  but  one  among  several  lines  of  observation.  The  children 
were  actively  interested  for  they  themselves  were  seeing  and  doing. 

In  the  eighth  grade  the  study  along  the  same  lines,  perfection 
and  reproduction,  utilized  insects,  birds,  white  mice,  tadpoles,  etc., 
kept  in  vivariums,  cages,  and  aquariums  for  daily  observation.  A 
government  fish  hatchery  was  visited  and  the  pupils  saw  the  details 
of  artificial  propagation.  Economic  and  sociologic  as  well  as 
hygienic  and  physiologic  principles  were  talked  over. 

The  instructor  is  confident  that  "clean  living"  was  helped. 

There  were  two  boys  two  or  three  years  older  than  the  others.  They 
were  precocious  and  unclean  minded.  It  could  be  seen  in  their  faces  at 
the  beginning  of  the  lessons.  I  had  no  private  talk  with  them,  but  at  cer- 
tain points  I  took  pains  to  have  them  understand.  There  was  a  complete 
mental  revolution  and  moral,  too.  I  know  from  their  manner.  They  are 
clean,  good  boys  now,  and  twice  as  bright. 

.  A  course  in  last  year  of  grammar  and  first  year  of  high  school. — 
The  instructor  was  a  biologist  with  the  degree  of  M.A.,  and  with  a 


8o  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

normal  training.  The  material  was  microscopes,  living  specimens 
collected  on  excursions  or  from  school  garden,  or  growing  in  the 
room;  a  small  museum.  The  time  was  two  hours  daily  for  one 
year. 

The  evolution  of  the  vegetative  functions,  respiration,  circulation, 
digestion  and  nutrition,  elimination,  and  reproduction,  was  traced 
from  protozoa  through  organisms  of  increasing  complexity  to  man. 
By  observation  they  learned  the  correlated  anatomy,  physiology, 
and  functioning  together — economy  of  efifort — and  only  so  much 
of  it  as  was  essential  to  elementary  understanding  of  their  impor- 
tance to  the  life  of  the  individual,  but  definite  and  clear  as  far  as 
they  went. 

Near  the  end  of  their  course  the  instructor  gave  them  a  "sex 
talk,"  recalling  the  progression  of  the  function  of  reproduction 
from  single-cell  life  to  mammals  (rabbits),  reminding  them  of  the 
evolution  of  the  "home"  and  parental  care  and  affection  (phenomena 
that  had  impressed  them  greatly  in  their  specimens)  ;  and  telling 
them  of  necessity,  even  as  children,  of  active,  healthy,  honorable 
lives,  with  no  concealments,  for  the  sake  of  their  future  homes, 
reminding  them  of  the  heredity  they  had  seen  in  their  studies. 
Germ  diseases  had  already  been  spoken  of  in  connection  with 
unicellular  life,  and  mention  was  now  made  of  the  prevalence 
among  practically  all  immoral  men  and  women  of  communicable 
germs  that  blight  the  lives  of  innocent  as  well  as  of  evil  people, 
who  should  be  shunned  as  one  does  smallpox.  The  avoidance  of 
alcoholic  drinks,  almost  always  a  part  of  such  lives,  was  empha- 
sized. 

RESULTS 

The  instructor  watched  results  from  this  experiment  in  science 
closely  during  the  following  weeks,  and  is  wholly  assured  that 
with  no  exception  they  were  wholesome.  The  clear-eyed  enthu- 
siasm, spontaneous  and  eager,  begging  for  the  privilege  of  working 
over  time,  continued  to  the  end.  Their  curiosity  had  been  frankly 
answered  by  tracing  law  through  its  evolution.  This  seems  the  nor- 
mal path  for  finite  minds  to  climb  to  truth,  specially  when  befouled 
by  ignorant  tradition.  The  difficulties  are  not  with  the  young.  A 
child's  clear  mind  knows  no  embarrassments  until  the  clouds  of 
ignorance  in  some  older  one  cast  these  shadows  there. 


SEX  INSTRUCTION  IN  SCHOOLS  8i 

The  instructor  noted  also  marked  growth  in  initiative  and  self- 
reliance,  gentleness  and  thoughtfulness.  There  is  no  better  train- 
ing in  truthfulness  than  this  drill  of  reporting  verbally  and  in 
writing  what  one  has  done  or  seen.  What  is  a  better  way  of 
implanting  reverence  for  the  Maker  of  it  all? 

These  pupils  were  required  at  intervals  to  review  in  a  written 
paper  definite  lines  of  investigation.  One  set  of  papers  traced  the 
evolution  of  respiration,  another,  circulation.  The  papers  on  repro- 
duction, just  as  written,  were  sent  me,  and  portions  are  published 
with  further  details  of  this  and  other  schools  in  the  Bulletin  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Medicine,  April,  1906.  I  was  particularly 
impressed  by  the  excellent  English,  large  vocabulary,  logical  thought, 
and  grasp  of  subject. 

All  these  supplementary  effects  of  good  work  in  the  study  of 
life  itself  are  additional  proof  that  a  fundamental  line  of  knowl- 
edge, well  taught,  re-enforces  others  and  serves  eJfTectually  for  drill 
in  the  tools  of  knowledge — the  three  R's.  Many  teachers  have  told 
me  that  school  gardens,  the  outdoor  laboratories  of  nature-study, 
are  invaluable  for  learning  mathematics. 

CHIEF  DIFFICULTY  AND  OBJECT 

It  is  harmful  to  distinguish  this  topic  from  the  regular  work, 
i.  e.,  the  mind  must  be  guided  to,  through,  and  beyond  it  by  logical 
progression.  Biology  offers  this  possibility  to  an  ideal  degree.  Our 
stumbling  block  is  the  lack  of  elementary  knowledge  of  it  by 
superintendents,  with  the  prevalent  state  of  mind  re  sex  subjects 
resulting.  A  less  difficulty,  one  easily  removed  when  superin- 
tendents require,  is  that  the  majority  (not  all)  of  biologic  students 
are  bound  by  academic  methods,  and  need  to  arrange  details  for 
children  with  a  view  to  plant  in  the  public  intelligence  certain 
desirable  trends  of  thought.  To  create  popular  appreciation  that 
this  gift  of  life,  evolved  straight  down  to  each  through  innumerable 
predecessors,  is  a  trust  to  be  modified  in  his  turn  and  passed  on — 
or  cut  off — is  not  a  difficult  task  for  the  biologist.  Consciousness 
of  it  sinks  into  the  child's  mind  while  following  the  fascinating 
life-cycles  of  lower  creatures,  as  does  the  fact  of  recurring  seasons. 

It  must  help  to  check  trifling  with  one's  own  or  another  life, 
cutting  them  short  by  suicide,  or  by  murder  of  the  unborn— now 


82  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK 

SO  ruthlessly  common.  One-quarter  of  all  pregnancies  end  in  abor- 
tions one-half  of  which  are  criminal,  i.  e.,  brought  about,  chiefly 
in  our  "respectable"  classes,  while  a  large  part  of  the  remainder  is 
due  to  the  spirocheta  pallida  of  Schaudinn.  The  census  of  1900 
gives  the  infant  death  rate  as  169.4  per  1,000  births.  One  eastern 
city  has  an  infant  mortality  of  400  per  1,000,  several  300,  and  over 
100  cities  have  an  infant  mortality  above  175  per  1,000  births. 
More  than  half  is  unnecessary.  The  reason  for  it  is  elementary 
ignorance  among  the  products  of  our  schools. 

If  growth  of  the  child's  mind  epitomizes  racial  development,  as 
physical  growth  before  birth  shows  characteristic  stages  of  evolu- 
tion from  single-celled  life  to  mammals,  we  need  to  rearrange  our 
artificial  curricula.  Natural  phenomena  and  industries  were  the 
primeval  influences  developing  society.  There  is  abundant  evidence 
for  believing  that  these,  restored  in  formative  years,  will  offer 
normal  paths  for  guiding  the  child  healthfully  into  the  complicated 
institutions  of  present  social  organization,  a  laborious  task  through 
books  and  memorizing  alone — too  often  cruelly  disappointing. 

WHAT  TO  TELL  A  CHILD 

What  a  child  should  be  told  has  been  fairly  indicated  in  the 
foregoing,  but  is  further  discussed  in  the  Educational  Pamphlet  for 
Teachers,  as  is  also  the  possibility  of  dealing  with  the  practice  of 
self-abuse. 

The  introduction  of  methods  employing  larger  muscular  mecha- 
nisms in  greater  degree,  as  in  the  garden,  laboratory,  and  shoi) 
work  of  the  sciences  and  industries,  together  with  wise  modification 
of  "calisthenics"  to  include  swimming,  rowing,  walking  and  run- 
ning, target  practice,  team  work  and  individual  competition  in 
games  and  historic  dances  is  indispensable  in  engaging  attention 
and  nervous  energy  in  wholesome  directions.  More  open-air 
interests  and  more  sanitary  indoor  life  are 'factors. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

No  attempt  is  here  made  to  offer  a  complete  list  of  books  and  other 
publications  on  the  topics  of  this  Handbook;  that  would  require  another 
volume.  For  the  convenience  of  those  who  desire  to  pursue  the  subject  a 
few  important  titles  are  mentioned,  with  indications  of  further  materials. 

For  Part  I,  on  the  medical,  economic,  and  legal  aspects  of  the  problem, 
the  following  may  be  consulted : 

Prince  A.  Morrow,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Social  Diseases  and  Marriage;  Social 
Prophylaxis.  Lea  Bros.  &  Co.,  1904.  This  book  contains  references  to 
the  professional  and  technical  literature. 

Howard  A.  Kelly,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.C.S.,  Medical  Gynecology.  D.  Apple- 
ton  &  Co.,  1908. 

August  Forel,  Dr.  med.,  phil.  et  jur..  Die  sexuelle  Frage.  Munich,  1907. 
Many  references  to  European  literature. 

The  Committee  of  Fifteen  (eminent  men  in  various  professions).  The 
Social  Evil,  with  Special  Reference  to  the  Conditions  Existing  in  the 
City  of  New  York.     G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  1902. 

Social  Hygiene  vs.  the  Sexual  Plagues.  Issued  by  the  Indiana  State  Board 
of  Health,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

For  American  Workingwomen  and  Their  Children.  Issued  by  the  Penn- 
sylvania Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Social  Disease,  1908-9;  Dr. 
Robert  N.  Willson,  Secretary,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania. 

Havelock  Ellis,  Studies  in  the  Psychology  of  Sex.  Philadelphia:  F.  A. 
Davis.    3  vols. 

Paul  Bureau,  La  crise  morale  des  temps  nouveaux.  A  dark  view  of 
French  urban  life. 

Dr.  Neuberger,  V erdffentlichungen  des  deutschen  Vereins  fUr  Volks- 
Hygiene.    Heft  VI,  1904. 

For  Part  II,  on  the  educational  aspects  of  the  problem,  consult: 

Educational  Pamphlets  of  the  American  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral 
Prophylaxis.  Dr.  E.  L.  Keyes,  Jr.,  Secretary,  109  E.  34th  Street, 
New  York. 

Pamphlets  of  the  Chicago  Society  of  Social  Hygiene.  Dr.  W.  T,  Belfield, 
Secretary,  100  State  Street,  Chicago,  111. 

Helen  C.  Putnam,  M.D.,  "Biology  and  The  Teaching  of  Hygiene,"  Edu- 
■    cation,   November   i,   1907;   "Practicability   of   Instruction   in   the   Phy- 

83 


84  THE  EIGHTH  YEARBOOK    ~ 

siology  and  Hygiene  of  Sex  as  Demonstrated  in  Several  Public  Schools, 
Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  January  31,  1907. 
"The  Teaching  of  Hygiene  through  Domestic  Science  and  through  Nature- 
Study,"  Report  of  the  Committee  to  Investigate  the  Teaching  of 
Hygiene  through  Domestic  Science  and  through  Nature-Study,"  Dr. 
Charles  Mclntire,  Secretary,  American  Academy  of  Medicine,  Easton, 
Pa. 
G.  S.  HalLj  Adolescence. 

The  literature  upon  this  topic  falls  into  several  classes:  (1)  Anthropological, 
treating  of  the  sexual  life  of  primitive  people  .  .  .  .  ;  the  studies  of  abnormal 
phenomena  .  .  .  .  ;  (3)  studies  of  normal  sexual  psychology,  like  those  of  Frick, 
Scott,  Gulick,  Bell,  and  also  Ellis;  (4")  the  vast  biological  literature;  (5)  that  of 
warning,  like  Storer,  Howe,  M.  W.  Allen,  Sperry,  Blackwell,  Warren,  Richmond, 
Stall,  Wilcox,  Wilder,  and  Morley.  Most  of  these  are  too  long ;  however,  some, 
written  by  well-intentioned  religious  people,  have  had  wide  sale  and  brought  their 
authors  great  gain,  and  perhaps  on  the  whole  they  do  good.     (Vol.  I,  p.  470.) 

He  thinks  that,  perhaps,  the  best  of  all  for  inspiring  influence  is  Ch. 
Wagner's  Youth  (Jeunesse). 

Sexualpddagogik.  Verhandlungen  des  3ten  Kongresses  der  Deutschen 
Gesellschaft  zur  Bekampfung  der  Geschlechtskrankheiten,  1907.  Leipsic, 
J.  A.  Barth. 

Gache,  L'education  du  peuple,    Pp.254  ff- 

Inazo  NiTOBi,  A.M.,  Ph.D.,  Bushido,  the  Soul  of  Japan.  G.  P.  Putnam's 
Sons,  1907. 

A.  Marro,  La  puberte.    Paris,  igoi. 


i 


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